Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill praised the self-belief of his players after seeing them fight back to snatch a vital Euro 2016 qualifier draw against Poland . Ireland looked to be heading for a damaging defeat as the Group D encounter ticked into injury time with the Poles within touching distance of three more points to add to the 10 they had reaped from their opening four games . However , O'Neill 's men summoned up a final push to rescue a point when substitute Shane Long prodded home a 91st-minute equaliser to make it 1-1 and ensure that the spoils were shared at the Aviva Stadium . Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill praised the self-belief of his players after their draw with Poland . Ireland nicked a point after they looked to be heading for a damaging defeat in the Group D encounter . Asked what the message had been at half-time after a distinctly ordinary 45 minutes by his team , O'Neill said : 'Just keep self-belief , that 's really important , really important . 'We felt we had not done ourselves justice in the first half . But you have got to keep self-belief , that 's really important for the side . 'That was the message , 'Know that you are still in this game , that we can do better , much better , we can improve ' . We 'd given away a really soft goal from our viewpoint , it put us on the back foot for a while , but we definitely could do it . 'The players rose to the occasion , which was great . That self-belief was really important . Poland , it 's a great point away from home as far as they 're concerned , but we are still well in it . ' Ireland created little of note before the break and found themselves trailing to Slawomir Peszko 's 26th-minute opener after he capitalised on an error by makeshift full-back Robbie Brady . But the home side rallied after the restart and after Brady and Robbie Keane had both hit the post , Long struck at the death to level it . Shane Long runs away in celebration after scoring the equaliser for his team in the Group D qualifer . Long is congratulated by John O'Shea ( right ) as Republic of Ireland snatched a hard-earned point . It may not have been the victory the Republic craved to propel themselves back into the hunt for automatic qualification , but it was not the defeat O'Neill had admitted in advance would cause a 'big dent ' in their hopes . Nevertheless , they will entertain Scotland in June sitting in fourth place in the group , still three points behind the Poles and two adrift of Germany and the Scots . Poland boss Adam Nawalka was disappointed to have seen two points wrenched from his grasp , but happy enough with a scoreline he believed was fair . He said : 'Overall , I believe the result was a fair scoreline . We played a very good first half and maybe lacked a bit of quality , but overall , we are content with a draw . 'Three points were really close , but one point is also a good result . It 's no surprise that Ireland came back to score an equaliser because the other results show that they know how to play to the end and get a result in their favour at the end of the game . ' O'Neill 's men summoned a final push to rescue a point when substitute Long scored a 91st-minute equaliser .
Republic of hearts drew 1 - 1 with hearts in their Group D encounter . captain ben ##nett has praised his players ' self - confidence . They looked to be heading for defeat before Shane Long collapsed late on .