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1996 AFC Asian Cup

كأس آسيا 1996
[REDACTED]
Tournament details
Host country	United Arab Emirates
Dates	4–21 December
Teams	12
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Saudi Arabia (3rd title)
Runners-up	United Arab Emirates
Third place	Iran
Fourth place	Kuwait
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	80 (3.08 per match)
Attendance	448,000 (17,231 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ali Daei (8 goals)
Best player(s)	Khodadad Azizi
Best goalkeeper	Mohamed Al-Deayea
Fair play award	Iran
← 1992 2000 →

The 1996 AFC Asian Cup was the 11th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in the United Arab Emirates between 4 and 21 December 1996. Saudi Arabia defeated hosts United Arab Emirates in the final match in Abu Dhabi. As the runners-up, the United Arab Emirates represented the AFC in the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup as the winners Saudi Arabia had qualified automatically as host.

Qualification

33 teams participated in a preliminary tournament. It was divided into 10 groups and the first-placed team of each group thus qualified.

The qualifying teams were:

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament
United Arab Emirates	Hosts	29 April 1993	4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Japan	1992 AFC Asian Cup winners	8 November 1992	2 (1988, 1992)
Saudi Arabia	Qualifying round Group 9 winners	2 February 1996	3 (1984, 1988, 1992)
China	Qualifying round Group 2 winners	4 February 1996	5 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Indonesia	Qualifying round Group 4 winners	6 March 1996	0 (Debut)
Uzbekistan	Qualifying round Group 8 winners	19 June 1996	0 (Debut)
Kuwait	Qualifying round Group 10 winners	20 June 1996	5 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Iran	Qualifying round Group 5 winners	21 June 1996	7 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Thailand	Qualifying round Group 3 winners	9 July 1996	2 (1972, 1992)
Syria	Qualifying round Group 7 winners	19 July 1996	3 (1980, 1984, 1988)
South Korea	Qualifying round Group 1 winners	11 August 1996	7 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Iraq	Qualifying round Group 6 winners	13 August 1996	2 (1972, 1976)

Notes:

Bold indicates champion for that year

Italic indicates host

Squads

Tournament summary

The tournament began with host United Arab Emirates against South Korea in group A, where the Emiratis played in a 1–1 draw. Subsequently, Kuwait was surprisingly held to a draw by Indonesia, the lead even being taken by the Indonesians. However, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and South Korea eventually established their position, with South Korea finishing in third place due to losing to Kuwait and inferior goal difference and qualified only as one of two best third-placed teams, while the host comfortably seized first place, leaving Indonesia bottom after two consecutive defeats to South Korea and the UAE.

Group B easily saw Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq took three leading places in their group, with both teams managed to beat Thailand, which finished bottom with three defeats, and also each three of them suffered one defeat one to another. Iraq only finished third due to inferior goal difference, but qualified as the best third-place finisher.

Meanwhile, group C was more entertaining, with both three last finishers grabbed one win each only. Debutant Uzbekistan, on its just first ever competitive participation of a major tournament and was regarded low, stunned entire of Asia by beating China with two late goals to gain three points in the team's just first competitive match. Defending champions Japan however emerged as the only team to collect all three victories, while China recovered following the defeat to beat Syria. The Syrians grabbed its only win, a 2–1 win over Uzbekistan, but the team's poor performance, with two defeats to Japan and China, cost the team from reaching the quarter-finals. Uzbekistan finished last despite the win over China, and was eliminated as well.

The quarter-finals saw entire of East Asia slumped out. Defending champions Japan was crushed down by Kuwait, China lost after a seven-goal thriller with Saudi Arabia, while South Korea suffered a denting 2–6 loss to Iran, with Iran scored five goals in the second half. The host UAE continued its quest to win the trophy with a successful 1–0 win over Iraq thanked for the golden goal of Abdulrahman Ibrahim. The semi-finals became a West Asian affair and rematches of group A and B: Saudi Arabia took a successful revenge on Iran following the group stage, beating the Iranians on penalty, while the UAE killed Kuwaiti dream for the second time with another 1–0 win to set up final with Saudi Arabia. Iran eventually took third place after beating Kuwait on penalty, the match ended 1–1 draw.

The final between the UAE and Saudi Arabia happened to be boring than expected. The two teams played defensively and lacking enthusiastic attacks in front of 60,000 spectators. Eventually, penalty had to be brought out, where the UAE missed two while Saudi Arabia only missed one, thus Saudi Arabia was crowned for its third trophy in the country's fourth consecutive Asian Cup final. Thanked for the win, Saudi Arabia gained automatic berth to qualify for the 2000 AFC Asian Cup held in Lebanon.

Venues

Abu Dhabi	Al Ain
Sheikh Zayed Stadium	Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium
Capacity: 60,000	Capacity: 15,000
Dubai	Abu DhabiAl AinDubai
Al-Maktoum Stadium
Capacity: 12,000

First round

All times are UAE time (UTC+4)

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates (H)	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Kuwait	3	1	1	1	6	5	+1	4
3	South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4	Indonesia	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1

United Arab Emirates	1–1	South Korea
K. Saad 40'	Report	Hwang Sun-Hong 9'

Indonesia	2–2	Kuwait
Widodo 20' Ronny 40'	Report	Al-Saqer 73' Haji 84' (pen.)

United Arab Emirates	3–2	Kuwait
Saeed 53' Al-Talyani 55' B. Saad 80'	Report	Al-Huwaidi 9', 44'

South Korea	4–2	Indonesia
Kim Do-Hoon 5' Hwang Sun-Hong 7', 15' Ko Jeong-Woon 55'	Report	Ronny 58' Widodo 65'

United Arab Emirates	2–0	Indonesia
Saeed 15' Al-Talyani 64'	Report

Kuwait	2–0	South Korea
Al-Huwaidi 60' B. Abdullah 87'	Report

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Saudi Arabia	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6
3	Iraq	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
4	Thailand	3	0	0	3	2	13	−11	0

Saudi Arabia	6–0	Thailand
Al-Temawi 10' (pen.), 29' (pen.) Al-Mehallel 15', 54' Al-Muwallid 18' Al-Jaber 52'	Report

Iran	1–2	Iraq
Daei 90' (pen.)	Report	Fawzi 37' Sabbar 69'

Saudi Arabia	1–0	Iraq
Al-Mehallel 26'	Report

Thailand	1–3	Iran
Kiatisuk 80'	Report	Saadavi 38' Minavand 54' Daei 70'

Saudi Arabia	0–3	Iran
	Report	Daei 12' Bagheri 37' Azizi 47'

Iraq	4–1	Thailand
Mahmoud 17', 50' Hussein 23', 63'	Report	Dusit 26'

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	China	3	1	0	2	3	3	0	3
3	Syria	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Uzbekistan	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3

Japan	2–1	Syria
Abbas 85' (o.g.) Takagi 88'	Report	Joukhadar 8'

China	0–2	Uzbekistan
	Report	Shkvyrin 78' Shatskikh 90'

Japan	4–0	Uzbekistan
Nanami 7' Miura 37' Maezono 86', 90'	Report

Syria	0–3	China
	Report	Ma Mingyu 35' Gao Feng 49' Li Bing 73'

Japan	1–0	China
Soma 90'	Report

Uzbekistan	1–2	Syria
Lebedev 53' (pen.)	Report	Joukhadar 48' Cheikh-Dib 74'

Third-placed qualifiers

At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
3	Syria	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3

Iraq (best third-place) and South Korea (second best third-place) qualified for the quarter-finals.

Knockout stage

All times are UAE time (UTC+4)

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	15 December – Abu Dhabi
	United Arab Emirates (a.e.t.)	1
					18 December – Abu Dhabi
	Iraq	0
					United Arab Emirates	1
	15 December – Al Ain
					Kuwait	0
	Kuwait	2
									21 December – Abu Dhabi
	Japan	0
									United Arab Emirates	0 (2)
	16 December – Dubai
									Saudi Arabia (pen.)	0 (4)
	South Korea	2
					18 December – Abu Dhabi
	Iran	6
					Iran	0 (3)
	16 December – Abu Dhabi
					Saudi Arabia (pen.)	0 (4)			Third place
	Saudi Arabia	4
									21 December – Abu Dhabi
	China	3
									Kuwait	1 (2)
									Iran (pen.)	1 (3)

Quarter-finals

United Arab Emirates	1–0 (a.e.t./g.g.)	Iraq
Ab. Ibrahim 103'	Report

Kuwait	2–0	Japan
Al-Huwaidi 17', 54'	Report

South Korea	2–6	Iran
Kim Do-Hoon 11' Shin Tae-Yong 35'	Report	Bagheri 31' Azizi 52' Daei 66', 76', 83', 89' (pen.)

Saudi Arabia	4–3	China
Al-Thunayan 31', 65' Al-Jaber 34' Al-Mehallel 43'	Report	Zhang Enhua 6', 89' Peng Weiguo 16'

Semi-finals

United Arab Emirates	1–0	Kuwait
Saeed 69'	Report

Iran	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Saudi Arabia
	Report
Penalties
Daei Peyrovani Yazdani Estili Bagheri Khakpour	3–4	Al-Temawi Sulaimani Zubromawi Al-Muwallid Al-Harbi Madani

Third place play-off

Iran	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Kuwait
Daei 40'	Report	Al-Huwaidi 15'
Penalties
Moharrami Estili Peyrovani Bagheri	3–2	Haji B. Abdullah Al-Lenqawi Mubarak Al-Huwaidi

Final

United Arab Emirates	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Saudi Arabia
	Report
Penalties
M. Ali Hussain K. Saad Saeed	2–4	Al-Thunayan Zubromawi Al-Harbi Al-Temawi Al-Muwallid

GK 17 Muhsin Musabah RB 6 Ismail Rashid Ismail CB 5 Yousuf Hussain CB 12 Hassan Mubarak LB 3 Munther Abdullah CM 15 Mohamed Ali CM 16 Hassan Saeed  16' CM 18 Ahmed Ibrahim Ali  53' RF 7 Saad Bakheet Mubarak  46' CF 10 Adnan Al-Talyani (c)  91' LF 23 Abdel Ahmed  46' Substitutions: MF 13 Abdul Aziz Mohamed  46' FW 11 Zuhair Bakhit  46' FW 14 Khamees Saad Mubarak  91' Manager: Tomislav Ivić

GK 1 Mohamed Al-Deayea RB 2 Mohammed Al-Jahani CB 3 Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi  77' CB 4 Abdullah Zubromawi LB 13 Hussein Abdulghani  72'  87' DM 16 Khamis Al-Owairan RM 10 Fahad Al-Mehallel  80' CM 8 Khalid Al-Temawi CM 14 Khaled Al-Muwallid LM 15 Yousuf Al-Thunayan (c) CF 9 Sami Al-Jaber  62' Substitutions: CF 25 Abdullah Al-Dosari  62' MF 12 Ibrahim Al-Harbi  77' FW 20 Hamzah Idris  80' Manager: Nelo Vingada

Statistics

Goalscorers

With eight goals, Iran's Ali Daei is the top scorer of the tournament. In total, 80 goals were scored by 47 different players, with one of them credited as an own goal.

8 goals

• Ali Daei

6 goals

• Jasem Al-Huwaidi

4 goals

• Fahad Al-Mehallel

3 goals

• Hwang Sun-Hong
• Hassan Saeed

2 goals

• Zhang Enhua
• Widodo Putro
• Ronny Wabia
• Khodadad Azizi
• Karim Bagheri
• Haidar Mahmoud
• Laith Hussein
• Masakiyo Maezono
• Kim Do-Hoon
• Sami Al-Jaber
• Khalid Al-Temawi
• Yousuf Al-Thunayan
• Nader Joukhadar
• Adnan Al-Talyani

1 goal

• Gao Feng
• Ma Mingyu
• Li Bing
• Peng Weiguo
• Mehrdad Minavand
• Naeim Saadavi
• Hussam Fawzi
• Khalid Mohammed Sabbar
• Kazuyoshi Miura
• Hiroshi Nanami
• Naoki Soma
• Takuya Takagi
• Ko Jeong-Woon
• Shin Tae-Yong
• Bashar Abdullah
• Badr Haji
• Hani Al Saqer
• Khalid Al-Muwallid
• Ali Cheikh Dib
• Dusit Chalermsan
• Kiatisuk Senamuang
• Abdulrahman Ibrahim
• Saad Bakheet Mubarak
• Khamis Saad
• Sergey Lebedev
• Oleg Shatskikh
• Igor Shkvyrin

1 own goal

• Hassan Abbas (for Japan)

Awards

Best player

• Khodadad Azizi

Top scorer

• Ali Daei

Best goalkeeper

• Mohamed Al-Deayea

Fair play award

•  Iran

Team of the Tournament

Marketing

Sponsorships

• Canon Inc.
• Clarion
• Coca-Cola
• Diadora
• Emirates
• Energizer
• Fujifilm
• Gillette
• Mild Seven
• Mitsubishi
• SABIC
• Sanyo

References

1. "AFC Asian Cup Archive: When Saudi Arabia reigned supreme in 1996". 12 January 2017.
2. "كأس آسيا 1996.. عندما انتزع المنتخب السعودي اللقب من الإمارات صاحب الأرض" (in Arabic). Sport 360. 8 December 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
3. "Drinks company cash boost for Asia". South China Morning Post. 21 July 1994. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
4. "Why soccer struggles to kick tobacco". South China Morning Post. 16 January 1995. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

External links

• RSSSF Details

• 1996 AFC Asian Cup
• AFC Asian Cup tournaments
• 1996–97 in AFC football
• 1996–97 in Emirati football
• International association football competitions hosted by the United Arab Emirates
• December 1996 sports events in Asia