RODRIGO Pessoa’s Irish team is safely through to Sunday’s FEI Nations Cup World Final, where they will battle with Italy and Columbia for the final Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying place.

Over a difficult track designed by Santiago Varela at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona, Ireland went through in fifth place with a team total of 10 faults.

Pessoa kept his faith in the squad he brought to the FEI European Championships last month, with Paul O’Shea replacing Shane Sweetnam on the starting four.

Peter Moloney was first to go with Team Harmony’s 11-year-old stallion Chianti’s Champion. The pair faulted at the middle part of the combination and picked up a time fault to finish on a total of five faults.

Paul O’Shea and Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu, owned by the Machu Picchu Partners LLC, looked like they were going to deliver a clear round for the team, but the back bar of the penultimate fence fell, and he added a time fault to also finish on five.

Darragh Kenny restored team hopes with a foot-perfect clear round aboard Ann Thompson’s 13-year-old stallion Balou du Reventon to the delight of the Irish fans in the stadium.

Cian O’Connor and Ronnoco Jump Ltd's PSG Final took up the anchor role. The nine-year-old looked green at the double when he knocked both parts and they picked up a time fault to finish on nine faults as the discard score.

That left Ireland on a team score of 10 faults and safely through to the final after a dramatic day of competition.

Ireland join Belgium, France, Sweden, Columbia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in Sunday’s showdown. Crucially, both Columbia and Italy are also chasing that Olympic place. The home nation of Spain agonisingly missed out by 0.45 of a second.

All teams start the final on a score of zero.

Some of the big teams to crash out on day one include reigning world champions USA and current Pan American champions Brazil. Britain’s Emily Moffitt and Winning Good had a heavy fall at the first part of the double (both horse and rider were fine afterwards), which left Britain, who have found good form recently, with no discard score to finish on 21 faults. They will compete in Saturday’s 10-team Challenge Cup at the venue.

There were just 11 clear rounds from the 70 riders who started. Riders who jump clear in today’s qualifying round and Saturday’s Challenge Cup will be eligible for a €50,000 bonus, while those clear today and in Sunday’s final will share a €100,000 bonus.

All members of the Irish team in Barcelona today wore specially commissioned gold arm bands in support of their team mate Kevin Babington who is continuing his recovery from serious injuries sustained in a recent fall in the United States.