Northern Ireland 2 Moldova 2, November 18th 1998

Moldova earned their first point of a difficult Euro 2000 campaign with this draw in Belfast.

The Northern Irish were hoping to secure a win against the bottom team in Group 3 but fell behind to the ten-man Moldovans when Tistimitanu broke through a vacant home defence to sidefoot home in the 57th minute. The Irish made amends six minutes later when Neil Lennon - impressive throughout in a hard tackling midfield role - sidefooted a Peter Kennedy header in to the net.

Gaidamasciuc gave the visitors a 22nd minute lead when he latched onto a Clescenco through pass and hit a low goal against the run of play. Veteran striker Ian Dowie smacked a Keith Gillespie cross hard into the net for the equaliser two minutes after hlaf time and Curtein was sent off for a second booking just after the hour. This gave the home side the advantage but they failed to make it tell as Moldova hung on for their first point.