Heat on ref, but Arnold silence

GRAHAM Arnold has straight-batted questions about several controversial incidents during Australia’s 3-2 Asian Cup win over Syria.

Yesterday’s triumph secured the Socceroos’ progress to the round of 16, where they will play either Uzbekistan or Japan next Monday in Al Ain.

But it didn’t come easy in a wildly intense match featuring a couple of puzzling decisions by Mexican referee Cesar Ramos.

Ramos made several big calls throughout the game at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, including awarding Syria a dubious late penalty when Omar AlSomah appeared to trip on a teammate before going down in the box.

It took the score to 2-2 and left the Socceroos’ qualification on tenterhooks before a stoppagetime Tom Rogic rocket sealed the win.

“I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen it back so it’d be wrong for me to comment,” Arnold said.

“If I was to say something that is wrong, then I’d put myself in a difficult position. I haven’t seen it back. Referee is there to do a job, that’s what he saw, whatever happened.”

Syria too made strong appeals for a second-half penalty when the ball hit Mark Milligan on the arm inside the area but had popped up off his foot.

“It probably wasn’t the only incident in the match was it,” Milligan said.

Milligan was involved in the first incident, when Syria put a free-kick in the back of the net, but Ramos ruled no goal for a foul on Milligan.

Syria also protested extensively at Chris Ikonomidis’ first-half goal, which had crept over the line before a defender made a desperate clearance. The 11,000 or so fans, overwhelmingly proSyrian, also made their displeasure known.

“That’s a situation you have to take up with AFC because it’s nearly the first stadium I’ve ever been in that shows replays of those types of goals that can create angst with the fans,” Arnold said.

“If they see something on the big screen it puts more pressure on the referee. I haven’t seen that before where those type of actions are shown back.”