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1996 AFC Asian Cup
كأس آسيا 1996
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^{1, 2}
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:

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² 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.^[1] 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 Dhabi Al Ain Dubai
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

Source: RSSSF
(H) Hosts

4 December 1996

16:45

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

Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Attendance: 35,000

Referee: Pirom Un-Prasert (Thailand)

4 December 1996