Kerry and Donegal played out a thrilling draw at Croke Park in the best game by far of this year's Super 8s to date to leave Group 1 set up for a grandstand finale in a fortnight's time.
The Kingdom will be hot favourites to progress as they will travel to Navan to face Meath, who have lost twice already in the series.
But Donegal must travel to Castlebar to face Mayo in a winner take all encounter after who revived their hopes of reaching the All-Ireland semi-final by beating Meath earlier at Headquarters.
The nerveless Michael Murphy grabbed a last-gasp equalising free for Donegal to round off an outstanding display in a game that was fiercely contested from the first minute to the fifth minute of injury time at the end of the second half.
Paul Geaney, who had put Kerry back into the lead moments earlier, went from hero to villain in committing the foul on Jamie Brennan to present Murphy with the chance to finish on a personal tally of 1-7.
Kerry midfield talisman David Moran, who dominated proceedings a week earlier against Mayo, was absent with a foot injury suffered in that game in Killarney.
Donegal, however, also came into the clash without their influential full-back Neil McGee.
The contest ebbed and flowed from the start, with both sides committed to attack, and while Gavin White deserved his black card before half-time, Donegal were unlucky to lose Niall O'Donnell the same way soon after.
Kerry edged ahead just before the break and they were helped by Geaney's 44th minute goal, which he struck from the outside of the right foot after two Donegal defenders collided and the path to goal opened up for him.
But while Killian Spillane kicked the Munster champions two points ahead in the 51st minute, Murphy struck back to nudge Donegal ahead soon after after Stephen White conceded a penalty on Daire O'Baoill.
The Kingdom were rattled and a second goal almost followed for Donegal, but when Jamie Brennan deflected Frank McGlynn's pass into Eoin McHugh's path, he hesitated and momentarily caught the ball before throwing it into the net, instead of fisting it in.
It was neck and neck to the end, then, with a draw the right result. To add to the drama late on, Tomas O'Se was red carded for Kerry following an off the ball incident.
"Relieved or disappointed? A bit of both," said Kerry boss Peter Keane afterwards.
"I thought we fought like hell towards the end, that there was a never say die attitude from us."
Donegal tyro Ryan McHugh, who just pipped Murphy for the man of the match award, commented: "We came up here for two points, we got one and now it's another huge game in two weeks' time against Mayo in Castlebar.
"But that's where we want to be".
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