Bosnia and Herzegovina playmaker Miralem Pjanic gave Ireland fans a worrying reminder of his impressive array of talents ahead of next month's two-legged Euro 2016 qualification play-off with an assist and a superb goal for Roma in their thrilling 4-4 draw against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
The hosts had raced ahead early at the BayArena in the Group E clash thanks to a brace from Javier Hernandez, who scored from the penalty spot in the fourth minute, then tucked away another effort in the 19th.
But Daniele De Rossi slid home in the 30th minute to get Roma back into it before guiding Pjanic’s fantastic delivery to the net eight minutes later.
Pjanic subsequently put Roma in front with a superb 55th-minute free-kick, and substitute Iago Falque appeared to settle things by making it 4-2 with 17 minutes to go.
However, Kevin Kampl pulled back a delightful goal in the 84th minute and two minutes later Admir Mehmedi - who Leverkusen had brought on as a substitute - notched a close-range equaliser.
It means the home side remain second in the group - with four points from three games - while their Italian opponents, two points worse off, stay bottom.
On-loan Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, who is also likely to line up for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Martin O'Neill's men, returned to the Roma squad after a month out with a knee ligament injury but never left the bench.
Elsewhere in the Group, defending champions Barcelona strengthened their position at the top of the pool as a brace from substitute Ivan Rakitic steered them to a comfortable 2-0 win at BATE Borisov.
Rakitic, on in the first half for the injured Sergi Roberto, struck in the 48th and 65th minutes, both times having received the ball from Neymar.
It leaves Barca with seven points from three games and with a place in the next round looking ever-more secure, while BATE stay third in the pool with three points.
Arsenal's European campaign was given new life after Olivier Giroud came off the bench to help them secure a 2-0 home victory over Bayern Munich in Group F.
The Gunners, who went into the contest having lost their first two group games, went in front against the pool leaders in the 77th minute when Giroud headed in after a mistake from goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Mesut Ozil scored a second in stoppage time to seal the win, his close-range effort adjudged by the officials to have crossed the line before Neuer had clawed the ball back.
Arsenal are now level on three points from three games with Dinamo Zagreb, with that pair three points behind Bayern and second-placed Olympiacos, who triumphed 1-0 at Zagreb thanks to Brown Ideye's 79th-minute goal.
In Group G, Chelsea continue to lie third after they drew 0-0 at Dynamo Kiev, who were leapfrogged into top spot by Porto, 2-0 winners at home against rock-bottom, pointless Maccabi Tel Aviv courtesy of goals from Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi four minutes apart at the end of the first half.
The Portuguese have seven points, Dynamo five and Chelsea four.
The night's other action was in Group H, with Zenit St Petersburg maintaining their 100% record by beating bottom side Lyon 3-1 at home.
Goals from Hulk and Danny wrapped up the win after Artem Dzjuba's opener for the hosts was cancelled out by Alexandre Lacazette.
Zenit are three points clear of second-placed Valencia, who defeated Gent 2-1 in Spain.
The home side took the lead through Sofiane Feghouli and after Thomas Foket equalised, Stefan Mitrovic's own-goal settled the match.
