Both sides had chances to break the deadlock at the Friendship and Peace Stadium but ultimately failed to find the back of the net and the result now leaves Kazma on top of Group C with 10 points, three ahead of Nasaf with Syria’s Al Jaish third on four points and still in the hunt for a last 16 berth following their 6-3 win over Al Ahed.

And Balaci was happy to maintain the status quo between the top two.

"The draw at the end of the day against an organised side like Nasaf is not a bad result," said the Romanian.

"We are still at the top of the group and our chances are good to advance to the knockout stage.

"We went into the game to get the three points and we wanted to get this because we were playing at home and we are at the top of the group.

"We tried our best to win but we were not lucky.

"We had a lot of chances to score but the strikers failed to convert these chances into goals," he added.

"We tried to create more scoring chances but we were not successful."

Nasaf coach Victor Kumykov echoed his counterpart’s sentiments that it had not been a good day for either side’s strike force.

"The final result of the game is fair because the two teams had several scoring chances throughout the game," he said.

"We tried to put pressure on Kazma’s players in the midfield and we managed to create several scoring chances but the Kazma goalkeeper was lucky tonight and he saved a lot of chances against us. He was the best player with Kazma.

"The game was not easy for us as Kazma are a good team and they played a good tactical game.” he added.

"I’m satisfied with the result although I was hoping that we could have got three points to avenge our defeat in Uzbekistan. I guess that Kazma are close to qualifying and our chances are good as well."