Great escape for Northern Irish

Rampant Croatia
The Croatians were rampant early on and went ahead after just ten minutes when pacy striker Josip Tadic left his marker for dead and blasted the ball past goalkeeper Jonathan Tuffey.

Brilliant one-two
The Northern Irish were simply not in contention for the rest of the half and the game seemed over as a contest in the 54th minute when Anas Sharbini played a brilliant one-two with Tadic before rolling the ball into the net.

Astonishing fightback
However this was the cue for an astonishing Northern Irish fightback. In the 75th minute Chris Turner curved the ball towards the Croatia goal and goalkeeper Neven Vuljanko could only look on in despair as Marko Culic headed into his own net.

Carville equaliser
Croatian, so confident early on, suddenly began to look nervous. Turner's strong header was tipped wide by Vuljanko in the first minute of added time but from the resulting corner substitute Michael Carville rammed the ball into the net from close range to rescue a point for his side.

'Great character'
There was even time for Northern Ireland to nearly snatch three points, but Carville's shot from 16 metres flew inches wide. Nevertheless manager Kenneth Shiels was delighted to gain a point which keeps his side in the hunt for a place in the top two. "Our lads showed great character today especially as they played against such a strong team," he said.

Next games
The next games in this group see hosts Finland, 3-0 victors against Malta in their opener, against Northern Ireland while Croatia face the Maltese.