Al Soma's late penalty rescues draw for Syria against Australia
Posted Thursday, October 05, 2017 by PA
Omar Al Soma's late penalty preserved Syria's unbeaten record in their temporary Malaysian home as they held Australia to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying play-off.
Al Soma struck from the spot with five minutes left after being fouled by Mathew Leckie, cancelling out a first-half strike from Robbie Kruse.
It extends Syria's unbeaten record at the Hang Jebat Stadium to seven outings, and leaves the tie delicately poised ahead of Tuesday's second leg in Sydney.
Australia were on top in the opening exchanges, with Ibrahim Alma doing well to turn Mark Milligan's long-range strike aside in the 19th minute.
Al Soma tested Maty Ryan with a header at the other end, but Australia were still having the better of the chances with Leckie firing over from Josh Risdon's pull-back.
As the half wore on, Syria came more and more into the contest, and Omar Kharbin wasted a big chance when he fired wide from Al Soma's cross.
With five minutes left in the half, Australia struck. Leckie cut in from the right-hand byline and fired across goal, with Kruse on hand to poke home.
The visitors really should have doubled their lead thanks to an error in the Syrian defence early in the second half, but Tomi Juric saw his first shot cannon back off the crossbar before he sent the follow-up on to a post.
Syria steadied the ship and went in search of an equaliser, with Al Soma seeing a good effort blocked by Milos Degenek before Ryan was relieved to watch Kharbin's deflected free-kick bounce wide of a post.
With a little over 10 minutes to go, Ryan tipped Al Soma's header on to a post, and it appeared that Syria's chance was gone.
But when Leckie impeded Al Soma the referee pointed to the spot and Al Soma made no mistake.
Trent Sainsbury almost spoiled the party late on, but Alma got a strong hand to his powerful header to keep it out.
And there was more drama in stoppage time when Moayad Al Ajan hit a superb shot from distance only to see Ryan tip it over the crossbar.
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