LIONS HELD IN HANOI; WINNING START FOR MALAYSIA

The draw gave Radjko Avramovic’s men just the beginning they were looking for ahead of the December meet while for hosts Vietnam; they needed the stalemate to give the team some measure of composure after their winless performance at the recent HCMC Cup.

At the My Dinh Stadium in the capital city of Hanoi, Singapore captain Indra Sahdan Daud almost gave the visitors the lead at the half hour mark following a tempestuous start but his attempt was cleared off the line.

Seven minutes to the breather, it was Fahrudin Mustafic’s turn to be disappointed with a shot that went wide while Agu Casmir’s drive five minutes into the second half was tipped over.

“It was a good game and I’m happy with what we showed. We passed the ball better than before and generally we tried very hard. However, we can of course do better and we missed several good chances as well,” said Avramovic (pic) afterwards.

“The defence was stable throughout the game and restricted Vietnam to taking shots from outside the box.”

IN THE MEANTIME, Malaysia got off their title defence of the Merdeka Tournament with a 4-0 thrashing of Nepal at the Stadium Shah Alam.

For the AFF Suzuki Cup 2008 in December, Malaysia are in Group B against hosts Thailand, Vietnam and the first team from the qualifying tournament in Cambodia.

Singapore are in Group A with Indonesia, Myanmar and the second team from the qualifiers.