Asue should have given Leonid Slutsky’s outfit the lead in the sixth minute when the striker from Equatorial Guinea was played in behind the Ulsan defence, but Jo Hyeon-woo was quickly off his line before diving to his right to palm a low shot to safety.

Joao Teixeira pushed his effort wide of Jo’s left post seven minutes later while Gao Tianyi flashed his centre across the face of goal with Liu Chengyu narrowly missing the opportunity to nod in from point blank range as Shenhua dominated.

Ulsan had been second best throughout the opening quarter and it was not until Matias Lacava outpaced the home defence to fire a shot the wrong side of the top corner of the Shenhua goal that the visitors seriously threatened.

The Korean side cut through the right flank of the Shenhua defence in the 28th minute, Ludwigson releasing Park Min-seo and his cutback found Baek In-woo unmarked but the midfielder fired a first-time effort over the bar.

Baek went closer two minutes later as he attempted to bend a right-foot shot into the top corner, only to narrowly miss the intended target. Lacava was then denied by Xue Winghao, the goalkeeper diving to his right to push a curling shot away for a corner.

Three minutes into the second half, Shenhua went in front. Asue made the most of a moment of hesitation in the Ulsan defence after Texieira’s attempted centre looped into the air, the forward sweeping a first-time effort beyond Jo.

But Ulsan responded 14 minutes later when the late-arriving Ludwigson latched on to Ko Seung-beom’s centre from the right to side-foot a volley into the bottom corner beyond Xue.

Xue denied Heo Yool the winner seven minutes from time when he tipped the substitute forward’s header over the bar to leave the points shared.