SINGAPORE: A resolute performance from Gavin Lee's Lions saw them hold regional heavyweights Vietnam to a 0-0 away draw in the ASEAN football championship on Friday (Jul 31).

The result at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi means that Singapore remain unbeaten with seven points from their first three matches.

Vietnam are 99th in the FIFA world rankings, while Singapore sit in 148th spot.

In the day's earlier game, Indonesia beat Timor Leste 3-0. Singapore sit atop Group A, ahead of Indonesia with six points. The Lions have played one more game than Vietnam and Indonesia.

Vietnam will play Indonesia on Monday (Aug 3), before the last round of group matches on Friday where Kim Sang-sik's side face Cambodia and Singapore take on Indonesia at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

It was all Vietnam in the first half and the home side had 13 attempts on goal to Singapore's two.

Arguably the best chance fell to defender Nguyen Thanh Chung in the 26th minute, but his free header across goal dropped wide with Izwan Mahbud beaten.

Minutes later, Nguyen Hoang Duc smashed a shot over after Shah Shahiran lost possession just outside the Lions' penalty box.

The home side continued to pile on the pressure, and Nguyen Thanh Chung missed another chance to get on the scoresheet after his deflected header off a corner just missed the far post.

Singapore fashioned a decent chance four minutes after the interval with Song Ui-young poking a shot goalward that had Patrik Le Giang beaten, but the attenmpt went wide.

Vietnam have not lost a competitive fixture since September 2024 and looked the more likely of the two sides to get a goal. This time it was Truong Tien Anh who drilled a shot wide after a pass from naturalised Brazilian Nguyen Xuan Son.

The Lions should have gone 1-0 up in the 77th minute after a well-worked set-piece found Jacob Mahler free at the back post. His shot was pushed away by Patrik Le Giang, before Shawal Anuar nodded a header over with the goal gaping.

Vietnam came even closer minutes later as another naturalised Brazilian attacker, this time Nguyen Tai Loc, smashed a screamer against the crossbar.