The Japanese predictably dominated proceedings in front of a vocal home crowd of 59,000, but the Lions had their chances notably in injury-time of each half.

In first half injury time, Ridhuan Muhammad beat on-rushing Japanese keeper Yoichi Doi to the ball but his cross from the right smacked off the post with Indra Sahdan staring at an open goal.

The visitors then nearly snatched an inprobably draw in the 93rd minute when Itimi Dickson took Noh Alam Shah's perfect chest-down to shoot from just inside the box. But Doi produced a superb reflex save to deny the Lions forward.

Japan had by far the better chances though and Singapore keeper Lionel Lewis was in fine form, being called into action to divert a low Tamada shot after just two minutes.

He could do nothing about the Japan striker's goal in the 13th minute though, as Tamada left the Singapore offside trap unsprung to latch onto Masashi Motoyama's pass and push the ball into goal.

To their credit though, the Lions including rookie debutant Tengku Mushadad in midfield buckled down and their resolve throughout the game meant that they were never overrun.

Japan substitute Yoshito Ohkubo had a late effort ruled out for offside when replays showed it should have counted, but the Lions could have had the last laugh through Dickson's effort.

Japan: Yoichi Doi, Atsuhiro Miura, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Naoki Matsuda, Akira Kaji, Masashi Motoyama, Koji Nakata, Yasuhito Endo, Toshiya Fujita (Yoshito Ohkubo 58) Mitsuo Ogarasawa (Alessandro Dos Santos 80), Keiji Tamada (Takayuki Suzuki 72)

Booked: Kaji, Suzuki

Singapore: Lione Lewis, S Subramani, Daniel Bennett, Baihakki Khaizan, Noh Rahman (Jaslee Hatta 74), Ridhuan Muhammad, Tengku Mushadad (Khairul Amri 52), Goh Tat Chuan, Shahril Ishak, Itimi Dickson, Indra Sahdan (Noh Alam Shah 65)

Booked: Indra, Ridhuan, Baihakki, Alam Shah