Tottenham striker Robbie Keane has extended his Irish goal scoring record with his 24th strike for his country as Ireland beat Croatia 1-0 in a friendly international in Dublin.
The hosts needed goal-line clearances from Liam Miller and Richard Dunne after the break to preserve the lead but overall Ireland deserved their slender win at a windswept Lansdowne Road.
With five minutes gone a mis-hit clearance by Dunne almost let Croatia in, but the Manchester City defender recovered to block Stejpan Tomas's shot before Niko Kranjcar fired wide.
Chelsea winger Damien Duff, at the centre of most of Ireland's best moves, carved out a chance in the 21st minute, exchanging passes with Keane from a short corner before running to the edge of the penalty area and shooting just wide.
Keane should have scored minutes later after being put through in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his lofted shot lacked power and was parried over the bar by Tomislav Butina.
But from the resulting corner on the right, again taken short, Duff wriggled past two defenders before firing in a low cross, and this time Keane made no mistake from close range.
Striker Bosko Balaban, a half-time replacement for Juventus defender Igor Tudor, was denied an equaliser just after the re-start when Miller headed his effort off the line.
With just over an hour gone Keane missed a good chance after being put through by Steve Finnan, and five minutes later Duff hit a post from the Liverpool player's cross.
Nine minutes from time Shay Given, who had only just come on to replace Paddy Kenny in goal, was beaten by Croatia's Brazilian-born striker Eduardo Da Silva but the shot was cleared off the line by Dunne.
