VietNamNet Bridge – The team will get a 1.75 billion VND bonus after it secured a 1-0 victory over Singapore on December 8 and won a spot to the semifinals of the AFF Cup 2010 as group leaders.

The bonus includes 1.5 billion VND from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and 250 million VND from Eximbank.

The team will receive the bonus after the AFF Cup 2010.

Defending champions Vietnam will meet the runners-up of group A, Malaysia, in the semis on a two-leg format on December 15 and 18.

At the post-match meeting, coach Henrique Calisto said: “My players played offense and defense well all three matches in the groupstage. Vietnam played fast paced football in the first 45 minutes, creating several chances of which one was converted one of into a goal.”

Calisto showed his respect to his rivals, the Singaporeans: It’s sad to see the Singaporeans leaving the tourney as they are a good team with many good players and  agood coach. Both Singapore and Thailand are good teams but they had troubles during their preparations.”

The coach also praised his players: "My players are the real heroes because in the three games they have given their maximum. When we have the capability to attack, we attacked and when we had the capability to defend, we defended.”

He thanked Vietnamese fans: I must also congratulate the fans, who were exceptional, the support from them helped and they were very, very important for morale.”

Singapore went into the game needing a draw to go into the last four but Raddy Avramovic's side was unable to pick up the points they needed to make it through to the semifinals of a tournament they have won on three previous occasions.

The Serb coach was disappointed with his side's exit and felt Singapore had done enough throughout the game to earn a draw.

"It was a good game," said Avramovic. "We have known each other for a long time, Vietnam and Singapore. Generally, they can't surprise us and we can't surprise them. They played the same way we thought they would play and we did enough not to lose this game. We were unlucky. We made a mistake in our concentration and that costs us a lot. But we didn't deserve to lose this game. It was our mistake when we had the corner and we worked on that, that we didn't give Vietnam a chance to counterattack. The player was in place but the player we needed to press the ball didn't, and that cost us a lot. I think we had enough chances during the game and I'm disappointed that we didn't score a goal.”

PV