Robbie Keane fires Irish to a vital victory

Robbie Keane plundered the 50th and 51st goals of his senior international career to fire the Republic of Ireland to victory in Macedonia.

Keane's eighth and 37th-minute strikes proved enough to secure three precious Group B Euro 2012 qualification points.

The victory did not come easily, however, and goalkeeper Shay Given was relieved to see Ivan Trickovski thump a 40th-minute penalty against the crossbar after John O'Shea had been penalised for a foul on Goran Pandev.

The Republic took the lead in the eighth minute, Keith Andrews finding Keane 30 yards out and he was allowed time and space to stride forward and then unleash a stinging right-foot drive which clipped defender Nikolce Noveski and flew into the net.

Things went from bad to worse for Macedonia with 37 minutes gone when central defender Boban Grncharov miskicked as he attempted to feed Nikolce Noveski's pass back to keeper Martin Bogatinov.

Keane needed no second invitation as he stole in and drew the goalkeeper before firing calmly into the far corner.

Trickovski was handed a glorious opportunity to drag the home side back into the game when they were awarded a penalty for O'Shea's challenge on Pandev, but the midfielder smashed the ball against the crossbar.

In the same group, Slovakia struggled to edge out minnows Andorra in Bratislava, needing a 63rd-minute goal from Miroslav Karhan to eke out a victory, but remain top of the group on head-to-head results.

Roman Pavlyuchenko scored a hat-trick as Russia came from behind to beat Armenia 3-1 and retain second place ahead of the Republic. Markos Pizzelli opened the scoring for Armenia in the 25th minute but Pavlyuchenko equalised a minute later with a volley. The Tottenham striker beat Armenia's offside trap and put Russia ahead in the 59th minute before converting a penalty after Yuri Zhirkov was brought down.

Israel beat Latvia 2-1 in Group F, with the visitors taking the lead through captain Yossi Benayoun's strike in the 19th minute before doubling their tally with a penalty from Tal Ben Haim in the 43rd. Latvia pulled one back when midfielder Aleksandrs Cauna netted from the spot.

Meanwhile Greece top the group after a 3-1 home win over Malta.

Their goals came from a Giannis Fetfatzidis double and a strike from Kyriakos Papadopoulos, while Michael Mifsud got a consolation.