Al Khaldiya’s Domagoj Drozdek tried his luck in the 14th minute from outside the penalty area but the strike, which took a deflection off the defence on its way through, was comfortably gathered by Abduvokhid Nematov.

Elven minutes later Mohammad Al Gharably was called into action to keep out Oybek Rustamov’s attempt from distance, the Al Khaldiya goalkeeper throwing himself to his left to prevent the ball finding the bottom corner.

Almost immediately the Bahraini side counterattacked only for Walid Sabbar’s weak effort on the run to be swept up by Umar Eshmurudov, who then calmly cleared.

With a minute remaining in the half, Akramjon Komilov delivered a cross from the left that was met by Bobir Abdiholiqov, but his header was too underpowered to cause Al Gharably any serious problems.

Nematov was required to react twice in quick succession in the early exchanges of the second half, first beating away Oussama Shili’s strike from a tight angle in the 52nd minute before diving to his right to save from Drozdek as Al Khaldiya pushed for a way through.

Drozdek then set up Saif Eddine Bouhra in the 71st minute to take aim at the Nasaf goal, but his right-footed attempt was also wide of the target as the home side continued to struggle to break down their visitors.

Hazaa Ali was off target with Al Khalidya pushing for the winner deep into stoppage time to leave both teams without a goal and a share of the spoils.