Stuart Grehan secured maximum points for Ireland as the hosts saw off defending champions Sweden 5-2 to book a semi final spot against Denmark at the European Amateur Team Championship at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club.
After he combined with Caolan Rafferty to birdie the 18th in the morning foursomes and level the scores at 1-1 he went out in the top singles match and delivered a 2&1 win over Simon Hovdal which proved to be the winning point.
Grehan missed a few chances early on and was actually one down after six, but he battled back with wins on the 7th and 10th to move 1UP.
Having lost the eleventh, the Tullamore native came roaring back with wins on the 14th and 16th to take control and he closed out the match on 17.
Moments earlier Gavin Tiernan came from two holes behind after six to win 3&2 against Jakob Milen while Matthew McClean secured the opening point of the afternoon, beating Albert Hansson 5&4.
The Amateur Championship finalist was left out of the morning session and while he admits he was scrappy on the front nine, he came up clutch with some superb putts midway through the back nine to win the 13th and 14th holes while he halved the 15th with a birdie and had an eagle putt conceded on 16.
“Happy out, bit dodgy at the start, couple of bogeys but that’s standard for me I always bring it back on the back nine!
“I just kept at it, hitting good shots, coming down the stretch you need to keep hitting good shots.”
The Co. Louth member has spoken about his mental game previously and he had to rely on that to get the best out of himself and dig out the result on the back nine.
“Just hitting one shot at t time and focusing on hitting good committed solid golf shots. You don’t need to do anything crazy with where the pins are tucked so it’s about hitting greens and putting the pressure on.”
McClean had lost his foursomes match 2&1 alongside John Doyle and he was delighted to recover and help Ireland into the last four.
“It’s funny, you only get to play two matches so zero for two would have been hard to take, one out of two still doesn’t feel great, me and John struggled a little but it’s very close to being good golf out there and thankfully I was able to get a point this afternoon.”
McClean finally clicked into gear around the turn, reeling off four birdies in six holes between the 7th and 12th as he took the game away from Hansson and that proved to be the key for the Irish team who enjoyed bursts of momentum to pull clear of the holders.
“This morning was very tight, could have gone quite badly at one point, obviously happy to get over the line. These matches were very tight so any way you can get across the line is great.
“Four in six in the middle of the round which thankfully took me away a little bit and gave me some breathing room and I was able to get the win on fourteen, the earlier the better.
Matches involving Caolan Rafferty and Thomas Higgins were called in and declared as halves.
Meanwhile, in Golf de Chantilly in France, the Irish Ladies team succumbed to a painful 4-3 defeat to Sweden but the Girls came up trumps in Slaley Hall as they dumped out hosts England with a thumping 5-2 win.
Coming up trumps were Olivia Costello and Róisín Scanlon, winning on the 19th in the foursomes to level the scores at 1-1 before the girls in green won four out of the five singles matches.
Ireland will tackle Italy in the semi finals
