1996 AFC Asian Cup

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:

Notes:
 * 1 Bold indicates champion for that year
 * 2 Italic indicates host

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.

First round
All times are UAE time (UTC+4)

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. 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)

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

Sponsorships

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