The angry fans have flocked to a social media profile representing the referee to express their dissent

Thousands of Syrian fans have voiced their anger at Mexican referee Cesar Ramos following the Eagles’ heartbreaking 3-2 loss against Australia that saw them eliminated from the Asian Cup in the UAE.

Ramos was involved in several controversial decisions during Tuesday’s match at the Khalifa Stadium in Al-Ain, including opting not to give handball against Socceroos captain Mark Milligan and tight goal-line call with Chris Ikonomidis’ second half strike.

The official was also criticised for giving Syria a penalty in the dying stages of the contest when Eagles captain Omar Al Somah tripped over his own teammate.

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After locating an unauthenticated Facebook page that they believed represented Ramos, Syrian supporters flooded the page with comments of abuse – some amusing, while others completely crossed the line.

At time of publication there was an extraordinary 170,000 comments on the post – with 32,000 reactions including 21,000 angry emojis – and one supporter even photoshopped Ramos with a wig and make-up.

Some of the comments that can be published from Syrian fans said:

“We will not forgive you.”

“You are a finite and hypocritical person. Syriaaaa won’t forgive you ???.”

“We demand a rematch considering that the Referee Had A wrong judgement on many actions during the game, as we deserve to win and we played with honor.”

“You have done bad to Syrian players and the Syrian public will not forgive you.”

“The joy of millions of Syrians has been lost because of you.”

Several of the posts were too vile or disgusting for Goal to display.

The defeat to Australia was Syria’s second heartbreaking loss to the nation after losing in the World Cup playoff for Russia in 2017.

Syria needed a win or draw against the Socceroos to progress to the Asian Cup round-of-16 after drawing against Palestine and losing to Jordan in their opening two games.

But Palestine’s 0-0 result with Jordan secured them third spot in the group ahead of Syria – with four of the six third-placed teams qualifying for the knockouts.