Republic of Ireland helped by depleted Germany - John O'Shea

Republic of Ireland defender John O'Shea celebrates his last gasp equaliser against Germany

John O'Shea feels the Republic of Ireland might have caught Germany at the right time to take a significant step towards Euro 2016 qualification.

The defender's injury-time equaliser in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday clinched a 1-1 draw against the world champions to stay ahead of them in Group D.

Germany were missing several first team regulars through injury and illness.

"We felt we really needed to get something with Germany missing the quality they were missing," he said.

Germany manager Joachim Low had to do without Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil and Bastian Schweinsteiger through injury and Andre Schurrle and Christoph Kramer because of illness.

The Germans fell to a shock 2-0 defeat to Poland three days earlier but O'Shea, 33, still expects them to be strong contenders to top the group.

"They still had a lot of quality on the pitch - it shows the strength they have, obviously," he said.

"They have just won the World Cup, so they have quality players.

"We got something from it and hopefully Germany keep getting stronger now and beat the other teams."

Ireland are currently second in the group on goal difference from Poland, who were held to a 2-2 home draw by Scotland on Tuesday.

Martin O'Neill's side will travel to Glasgow next month in confident mood after following up their 2-1 victory in Georgia with a 7-0 demolition of Gibraltar and then a point in Germany that few had predicted they would collect.

If the result at the Veltins Stadium was unexpected, particularly after Toni Kroos had given the home side a 71st-minute lead, it could hardly have been secured in more fitting circumstances with O'Shea marking his 100th appearance for the Republic with just his third international goal.

The Sunderland defender said: "For it to be on the night in question, the amount of caps I'd achieved and to do it in the last minute against Germany, away from home, was very, very special".

"It keeps the momentum going, that's the big thing.

"A late winner against Georgia from Aiden McGeady, and obviously all the teams who are going to qualify from the group are going to beat Gibraltar, so we had to get that done and dusted.

"Thankfully we did, no injuries picked up and we come away to Germany and pick up a point, so there's big momentum."