Alberto Gilardino's last-minute equaliser broke Republic of Ireland hearts and ensured Italy will be able to defend their World Cup next year in South Africa.

Sean St Ledger's 87th minute header looked to have won the game for the Irish at Croke Park, but Gilardino took advantage of poor marking to make it 2-2 as time ran out in the Group Eight clash.

Ireland, who claimed a play-off spot by virtue of the draw, had taken the lead through Glenn Whelan's eighth-minute strike, but Mauro Camoranesi levelled with 26 minutes to go.

Ireland's only challengers for a play-off place, Bulgaria, wrote themselves out of the story earlier in the evening as they went down to a heavy 4-1 loss in Cyprus.

Constantinos Charalambides' early brace put the hosts in the ascendancy and, although Dimitar Berbatov halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time, second-half goals from Michalis Constantinou and Stathis Aloneftis sealed the rout.

Montenegro won their first World Cup qualifier, beating fellow strugglers Georgia 2-1.

Andrija Delibasic scored the winner on his debut after Georgia's Vladimir Dvalishvili cancelled out Radoslav Batak's opener.