Alberto Gilardino's last-minute equaliser broke Republic of Ireland hearts but Giovanni Trapattoni’s men have secured a guaranteed spot in the World Cup play-off round to be played between the best second ranked teams in the nine qualifying groups.
Sean St Ledger's 87th minute header looked to have won the game for Ireland 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'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.
At the foot of the table, Montenegro won their first World Cup qualifier, beating fellow strugglers Georgia 2-1.
As it stands, Ireland are likely to finish in the bottom quartet of the eight best runner-up qualifying teams.
That means they could face Russia, Greece, Portugal or France in a two-legged play-off on 14 November and 18 November.
