Hull City's play-off semi-final with Millwall remains finely poised after the two Premier League hopefuls played out a 0-0 draw at MKM Stadium on Friday. 

In a game of few chances, both sides hit the post while Ryan Leonard saw a late goal ruled out for a foul inside the box ahead of the second leg in three days time. 

Hull almost made the perfect start inside the first two minutes when Mohamed Belloumi picked up the ball on the left before dancing past Leonard and Tristan Crama, but his mazy run ended with his shot hitting the woodwork. 

Thierno Ballo and Femi Azeez then fired wide at the other end before Belloumi tested Anthony Patterson as both sides struggled to create any clear-cut chances in the first half. 

The pattern of the game continued after the break, but Millwall looked the more dangerous on the break, and they almost hit the front through Camiel Neghli in the 69th minute, only to see his strike from the edge of the box clip off the right post.

Sergej Jakirovic turned to his bench and introduced both Kyle Joseph and Yu Hirakawa, the latter almost making an instant impact when his cross just 49 seconds after coming on was headed narrowly wide by Oliver McBurnie. 

The visitors thought they were taking a one-goal lead back to The Den five minutes from time, but Leonard's volley from close range was ruled out by referee Gavin Ward after Crama was adjudged to have fouled Charlie Hughes in the box. 

Back to SE16 for the Second Leg pic.twitter.com/w08PKCpj2C

— Millwall FC (@MillwallFC) May 8, 2026

Data Debrief: All to play for

Hull entered the match having won the first leg of their semi-final ties in all three of their previous appearances in the Football League play-offs, but they failed to build up a head of steam here against a resolute Millwall defence. 

Millwall, meanwhile, will be confident heading back to London after continuing their record of not losing the first leg of their last seven play-off semi-final ties (W2 D5) since a 2-0 defeat to Derby County in 1993-94. 

But the Lions will feel they did enough to at least score against Hull, though they were wasteful when those opportunities arose. They had 15 shots, nine more than the hosts, but still ended up with the same expected goals (xG) total (0.56).