Given the hero as Irish clear final barrier

Iran 1 Republic of Ireland

It has been a long road from the Amsterdam Arena 15 months ago, via Portugal, Estonia, Andorra and Cyprus, but the Republic of Ireland successfully completed their journey 3,500 miles from home here yesterday afternoon. Now they can begin planning for another adventure, in Japan and South Korea next summer, their first at a major tournament since 1994.

Three times since then they had been knocked off course in a play-off, twice by the narrowest of margins. This time there was no mistake, even though Yahya Golmohammadi's headed goal in the first minute of stoppage time blemished two impressive statistical records: it was the Republic's first defeat in 17 matches, since Scotland's visit to Dublin in May 2000, and the first game in which they have failed to score since playing Greece a month prior to that.

The latter run was always in peril as, in the absence of Niall Quinn and Roy Keane, Mick McCarthy's team concentrated on stifling rather than creating. That was achieved effectively enough to subdue the passionate crowd of some 80,000, many of whom were reduced by the end of the afternoon to throwing plastic water bottles and setting newspapers alight as Iran's hopes of a second successive World Cup appearance went up in smoke. Others simply left in droves.

Even at the start, one of the largest grounds in the world, with one terrace overlooked by a portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini, was surprisingly short of capacity, partly because of the space taken up by an enormous banner behind one goal reading "3-0".

Set that daunting target – the Republic had not lost by such a margin since 1985 – after their 2-0 defeat in the first leg in Dublin on Saturday, the home team would have come closer to achieving it had Newcastle's goalkeeper Shay Given not reproduced his fine form of six days ago.

Twice in the second half, as Iran finally threatened, he pulled off saves to match those from Ali Karimi on Saturday, which would have given the Asian side an invaluable away goal or two.

Without one, they were always vulnerable to an Irish break, but, although Robbie Keane was lively early on, he and David Connolly managed one shot between them in 90 minutes, which the Wimbledon striker drove wide from a good position.

Overall, however, there can be no denying that the Irish deserve a place in the sun again. Fancied by few sober observers on either side of the Irish Sea to progress from a group including the Netherlands and Portugal – two of the semi-finalists at Euro 2000 – they remained unbeaten in 10 games, and critically defeated the Dutch at Lansdowne Road with 10 men.

McCarthy was fully entitled to his satisfaction, expressed at a chaotic press conference after the game. "We got beaten and I wanted to stay unbeaten, but, if you look at the results we've got, it doesn't upset me too much," he said. "It was a wonderful team effort, but Shay Given saved us a couple of times and deserves all the praise he gets."

It was to the credit of the central defenders Steve Staunton (winning his 94th cap) and Gary Breen that Given was not tested for almost an hour. The Republic had sensibly taken the advice of Terry Venables, who led Australia into the same bowl of noise four years ago, and made a lengthy first pitch inspection almost two hours before kick-off.

Yet, midway through the first half, Ireland had done the seemingly impossible in quietening down the crowd. For a time the only significant noise to be heard was the whistling for errors like the stream of inaccurate passes played by Karim Bagheri. Given the job of collecting the ball from his back three and distributing it, the former Charlton man seemed overcome by nerves and repeatedly found either touch or a green shirt.

It was half an hour before Iran put together a coherent move. Two or three followed in quick succession to reactivate the crowd, but only one caused any serious alarm to Given, who was beaten as Karimi's header from close range drifted wide. That was the sum of danger before the interval.

With the cheerleaders and ballboys working as hard as the home team, the second half was livelier, although marked by an increasing sense of desperation from Iran as they failed to defeat Given. As opportunities began to materialise, he made his first outstanding stop by diving low to parry Bagheri's shot and then beating Ali Daei to the loose ball.

A similar effort to deflect Mehrdad Minavand's shot for a corner seemed to deflate Miroslav Blazevic's troops and by the time Mehdi Mahdavikia wriggled to the by-line, only to pull his cross back behind Daei, many spectators were on their way home. They therefore missed Golmohammadi's header past Given from a free-kick just after two minutes of stoppage time had been indicated. A goal any earlier and the Irish would have been in trouble. As it is, they are in clover.

IRAN (3-4-3): Mirzapour (Foulad); Peyrovani (Pirouzi), Golmohammadi (Foulad), Rezaei (Perugia); Mahdavikia (Hamburg) , Kavianpour (Pirouzi), Bagheri, Minavand (both unattached); Karimi (Al Ahli), Daei (Hertha Berlin), Vahedi Nikbakht (Esteghlal).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (4-4-2): Given (Newcastle); Finnan (Fulham), Breen (Coventry), Staunton (Aston Villa), Harte (Leeds); McAteer (Sunderland), Kinsella (Charlton), Holland (Ipswich), Kilbane (Sunderland); Robbie Keane (Leeds), Connolly (Wimbledon.) Substitutes: Morrison (Crystal Palace) for Keane, 75; Kelly (Leeds) for Kilbane, 82.

Referee: W Vega (Costa Rica).