A superb performance was capped by the 85th-minute equaliser after Aston Villa’s Thomas Hitzlsperger had given the Germans the lead in the 33rd minute.

And Givens said: “Liam Miller’s performance was exceptional. He has that ability to influence the game and it was a Roy Keane type of performance.

“He takes everything on himself, the defending and the attacking and he ended up scoring the equaliser.

“It was brilliant. He’s a very important part of our play and I suppose in his hometown and as captain he took everything on board and performed magnificently.

“And he’s not just captain for the day. He’s the captain of the group and I told him when he came in this week that he was captain for the remaining games of his time with us.

“He’s coming to the age where he’s nearly finished with us, like Graham Barrett, and he certainly rose to the occasion today.”

A draw was the least the Irish deserved, Givens said, but with back-to-back Euro 2004 qualifiers against Albania on Friday and Georgia the following Tuesday, a good performance was the real bonus.

“I thought we deserved something out of it,” Givens added. “It was a big, physically strong German team and some of our boys were two, maybe three years younger.

“So I think it would have been cruel had we lost but even if it had ended 2-1 I still would have been happy with the boys’ performance.”