Al Hilal had been looking to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Qatar’s Al Sadd in Matchday Two but Greek coach Donis remains winless on the continent after taking charge of the Saudi giants earlier this month.

Khalid Kaabi, Abdulla Al Dossary and Thiago Silva all had chances to break the deadlock in the first period, although Al Hilal were grateful to a goal-line block by Yasir Al Shahrani, and then the right-hand upright that kept out Mathias Chago’s effort, that prevented their hosts taking the lead after half-time.

“In the first half we were the better side and created a couple of opportunities but in the second period Foolad were the better side,” said Donis (pictured).

“We were lucky not to concede a goal because Foolad is a very good team with a lot of young talented players and I have a lot of respect for them.

“We tried our best in this game and in the first half we showed that we didn’t come here for a draw. We took a point and now we are focusing on the return leg. We will try our best to qualify from this group.”

Although the result means Iranian champions Foolad extend their undefeated record in the AFC Champions League to 11 games, it also means that they are yet to post a win in the 2015 edition after they recorded a third consecutive tie having also split the points with Al Sadd and Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv. 

“I’m not satisfied at all with the result, but my players did their best and we couldn’t score despite having very good goal-scoring opportunities. However, this one point is valuable for us and with these three points after three draws we have to wait and see what happens in the next matches,” said Foolad coach Dragan Skocic.

“We have three games left in this group and we will try our best to take three wins out of these three games. The first half didn’t go as I expected but in the second period we were completely different and we had a lot of opportunities which unfortunately didn’t convert into goals for us.

“I’m always hopeful of qualifying; I believe we can take enough points from the next three games to seal our spot in the last 16.”