Fulham boss Roy Hodgson was left baffled by the decision making of referee Paul Allaerts during farcical scenes in the 1-1 Europa League draw with Roma.

Allaerts awarded the Italian giants a penalty after John Arne Riise went tumbling beneath minimal contact from Stephen Kelly in the 76th minute.

The sense of injustice was heightened when the official brandished a red card to Kelly, but only after first showing it to Brede Hangeland in a case of mistaken identity.

Hodgson was dismayed by the confusion given the incident took place in full view of one of the additional assistant referees standing just yards away.

"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."

Mark Schwarzer produced a brilliant save of Jeremy Menez's spot kick but Roma snatched a point when Marco Andreolli drove home with the last kick of the match.

"We should have won the game," said Hodgson, who saw Hangeland give his side a deserved first-half lead.

"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."

Roma manager Claudio Ranieri was impressed by Fulham's display but felt a draw was the right outcome.

"We left it to the very last minute, but we deserved to draw," he said.

"I wasn't surprised at how much Fulham dominated in the first half - I know how well they can play.

"I was more surprised that they didn't play like that in the second half.

"If we want to go through we must beat both Basle and Fulham. There is no favourite in this group now.

"Roy is doing a very good job. Fulham are strong and hard to play against."