Goals in the first half from Abdulrahman Al Qahtani and Taiseer Al Jassam were enough to give the three-time continental champions the win before Al Jassam's sending off in the second half for a second bookable offence handed the Singaporeans hope.

But despite having a one-man advantage for most of the second half, Raddy Avramovic's men were unable to make much of an impression against what was largely a second-string Saudi Arabia side until Ashrin Shariff netted with the last touch of the game

Al Hilal midfielder Khaled Aziz captained a team that also featured Saad Al Harthi and Malek Maaz and they caused the Singaporeans few problems in the opening exchanges, with the visitors taking time to find their feet.

Singapore captain Indra Sahdan Bin Daud fired off the game's first shot, but it was a weak effort from the edge of the area that caused Yasser Almosailem in the Saudi goal little concern.

As the half wore on, however, the Saudis started to control the tempo of the game, although their opening goal had more than a touch of good fortune about it.

Singapore's Nigeria-born defender Precious Emuejeraye was penalised for raising his foot too high by Indonesian referee Hidayat Jajat Sudrajat on 26 minutes and from the resulting free-kick the Saudis went in front.

Al Qahtani struck what looked to be a straightforward shot from almost 30 yards towards Lewis' goal, only for the Singapore keeper to allow the ball to slither under his body and over the line.

Nine minutes later the Saudis doubled their advantage, this time thanks to the tricky feet of Al Jassam, whose first touch took him past a static Singapore defence and by the time the home defenders could react he was clipping the ball beyond Lewis.

Less than five minutes after the restart Al Jassam earned his second yellow card of the game when he lunged at Mustafic Fahrudin in the centre circle, catching the midfielder on the thigh.

Singapore had chances to pull themselves back into the game, with Muhammad Ridhuan firing wide when he should have hit the target 15 minutes from time while Mustafic's attempt from distance soon after was in vain.

Shariff finally put the Singaporeans on the scoresheet in the dying seconds from close range but it was not enough to deny the Saudis.