Walters snatches point for Irish against Austria in World Cup qualifier

Stoke City forward Walters chased a long ball downfield by Robbie Brady and held off Aleksandar Dragovic before volleying into the far corner with five minutes remaining at the Aviva Stadium.

That cancelled out Austria's opening goal, which arrived just after the half-hour mark and was the result of a well-worked corner routine.

David Alaba's delivery from the left was nutmegged by Sebastian Proedl and Martin Hinteregger, the defender from German side Augsburg, swept a low first-time finish into the net.

The result leaves Ireland still unbeaten after six matches in qualifying Group D and puts them provisionally on top of the section on 12 points, a point above Serbia.

Serbia are in action later at home to Wales, who are fourth with seven points, a point behind Austria in third.

Only the group winners qualify automatically for next year's finals in Russia, with the eight best runners-up in the nine groups going into play-offs for the last four spots.

After falling behind, Martin O'Neill's Ireland pressed in the second half and almost equalised with 10 minutes left, but Kevin Long saw his header cleared off the line by Stefan Lainer.

Walters duly restored parity, and there was controversy in the 87th minute as the hosts thought they had won it.

Austrian substitute Florian Grillitsch sliced a corner up into the air inside his own six-yard box and Lainer helped the ball into his own net under pressure from Shane Duffy on the line.

However, Spanish referee David Fernandez Borbalan disallowed the effort, apparently penalising Duffy for leading with his arm.

Also in Group D, Georgia came from two goals down to draw 2-2 in Moldova, but those two sides are well adrift at the bottom of the section.

In Group I, Ukraine boosted their hopes of progressing to the finals as they won 2-1 in Finland, Dynamo Kiev's Artem Besedin getting the winner in Tampere after Yevhen Konoplyanka's opener had been cancelled out by Joel Pohjanpalo.

Ukraine are second, two points behind leaders Croatia, who go to Iceland later.

Also in action later are Spain, who travel to Macedonia, and Italy, who entertain Liechtenstein. Spain and Italy are level on points at the top of Group G.