Fulham manager Roy Hodgson insists his team were the victim of poor refereeing as Roma snatched a late 1-1 draw amid chaotic scenes in their Europa League clash at Craven Cottage.
Despite the help of an additional assistant, stationed behind the goal, referee Paul Allaerts awarded a very soft penalty when John Arne Riise tumbled beneath an innocuous challenge from Stephen Kelly in the 76th minute and then showed a red card to the wrong player.
Allaerts dismissed Brede Hangeland and only realised his mistake when a crowd of Fulham players successfully persuaded him that he had picked the wrong player. Hodgson was baffled at how the officials could get it so wrong.
"If you watch the penalty decision on the video it was quite a harsh one. I'm not 100% sure there was contact," said Hodgson. "Kelly has tried quite hard to stay out of the way because he knew Riise was looking for the penalty.
"The sending off I can't really understand. Hangeland was coming across to try and get a block in. The penalty was awarded so I can't understand why the referee felt it necessary for us to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men.
"Referees make wrong decisions. We already know that. He selected the wrong man. I would like to have seen the assistant referee make it clear to the referee it wasn't a foul in the first instance."
Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer produced a brilliant save of Jeremy Menez's spot kick to preserve the lead that had been secured by Hangeland's towering 24th minute header. But Roma snatched the latest of points when Marco Andreolli ghosted in unmarked at the far post where he drove in with the penultimate kick of the match.
"We should have won the game," said Hodgson. "It's extremely hard for us because we did very well at West Ham earlier this month but had another extremely harsh sending off there two. It's amazing that a team that hardly commits a foul gets two players sent off this season.
"Roma won with the very last kick of the game with a deflected goal so obviously we feel aggrieved. It was a marvellous save from Mark."
The draw saw Fulham drop down to second place in Group E, one point behind leaders Basle.