The Socceroos claimed a first-half lead through Kruse’s finish from a Mathew Leckie cross-cum-shot.

But Syria leveled from the spot on 85 minutes through Omar Al Somah, who threatrically went down after contact from Leckie when dealing with a cross.

Socceroos v Syria pic special

“I think we were a little bit unlucky,” Milligan told Fox Sports.

“I thought we dealt with the long direct play that they dealt up in the second half reasonably well.

“I’m not sure what happened with the pen. Maybe it touched his hands, I don’t know.

“We need to hold on to that regardless of what was thrown at us from things out of our control.

“But we dug deep in tough conditions and we’ll go back to Australia and get the job done there.”

Goalscorer Kruse reiterated Milligan’s belief that it wasn’t a penalty, taking a swipe at the referee in the process.

“It’s never a pen but you expect that in this confederation with the referees, you’ve just got to move on,” Kruse told Fox Sports.

“He’s headed the ball outside the box. He’s jumped in the air and touched him. The guy is 6’5 and gone down pretty easy. 

“You knew the referee wanted to give it. I think he almost blew it before he went down. We’ve had this ref before and you know what it’s going to be like.”

Milligan remained confident Australia would progress ahead of the second leg in Sydney on Tuesday night.

“Very, very confident,” he said.

“We’ll go home and get them on a good pitch in front of all our fans who I know will come out in great numbers on Tuesday night.

“We’re looking forward to that. We’re looking forward to getting a good result there.”

Socceroos v Syria pic special