SINGAPORE: Lions head coach Gavin Lee praised his team’s fortitude after progressing to the semi-finals of the ASEAN football championship on Friday (Aug 7).At the Jalan Besar Stadium, a 66th-minute Ilhan Fandi equaliser was enough to seal Singapore’s progression to the tournament semi-finals after Ragnar Oratmangoen put the away side ahead in the 47th minute."I'm just very proud of the boys and staff. It hasn't been an easy journey," said Lee at a post-match press conference."Even before the tournament started, nobody gave us a chance really in this group. And so for us to just dig deep and grind (out) the performances and results is just a nice feeling as a coach.""It was a very tough game, and we knew coming into the game the magnitude of how important this was, not only for us, but our families and all the fans of Singapore football," said man of the match Jacob Mahler, 26, who cramped midway through the press conference."The main goal was to go to the next round, give Singaporeans a semi-final to see and to watch. There's still stuff to work on and now it is full focus on the semi-finals. We're looking forward to it."The result means that the Lions remain unbeaten in the tournament with eight points from four games. They finished second in Group A, behind Vietnam. Vietnam beat Cambodia 3-1 on Friday night.Three of the four Southeast Asian teams that qualified for next year's Asian Cup are in Group A, with Singapore the lowest ranked among the three. Vietnam sit 99th in the FIFA rankings, while Indonesia are 118th and the Lions 148th.