The Asian Football Confederation's Asian Cup 1988 finals were held in Qatar between December 2 and December 18. Saudi Arabia defeated host nation Republic of Korea in the final match in Doha.

Qualification

---

• qualified automatically as host
• qualified automatically as defending champions

The other 8 qualifying teams were:

First round

---

Notes:

• Abbreviations:
  • Pld: games played
  • W: won
  • D: drawn
  • L: lost
  • GF: goals for
  • GA: goals against
  • Pts: points

Group A

	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	4	4	0	0	9	2	8
	4	2	1	1	3	3	5
	4	2	0	2	7	6	4
	4	1	0	3	2	4	2
	4	0	1	3	0	6	1

December 2
	Iran	2 – 0	Qatar
		(HT: 1 – 0)			Ref:Micheal Voutrou (FRA)
	Bavi 6'
	Pious 82'
December 3
	Rep. of Korea	1 – 0	U.A.E.		Doha Al-Ahly Stadium (1500)
		(HT: 1 – 0)			Ref: George Courtney (ENG)
	Lee 8'
December 4
	Iran	0 – 0	Japan
		(HT: 0 – 0)			Ref:Thompson TANSHAN
December 5
	Qatar	4 – 2	U.A.E.
		(HT: 2 – 1)
	Muftah 17'		Mohomed 35'
	Faray 26'
December 6
	Rep. of Korea	2 – 0	Japan		Doha Qatar SC Stadium (15:00)
		(HT: 2 – 0)			Ref:Salah Mohammed Karim (IRQ)
	Hwang 17'
	Kim 35'
December 8
	Iran	1 – 0	U.A.E.
		(HT: 1 – 0)			Ref:Steven Owens (TUN)
	Pious 28'
December 9
	Rep. of Korea	3 – 2	Qatar		Doha Qatar SC Stadium (1700)
		(HT: 2 – 0)			Ref:George Courtney (ENG)
	Chung 10'		Salman (pen)47'
	Kim 34'		Salman (pen)80'
	Chung 72'
December 10
	Japan	0 – 1	U.A.E.
		(HT: 0 – 0)
			Muhammad 80'
December 11
	Rep. of Korea	3 – 0	Iran		Doha Al-Ahly Stadium (1700)
		(HT: 2 – 0)			Ref:Naji Jouieni (TUN)
	Byun 26'
	Hwang 42'
	Byun 57'
December 12
	Qatar	3 – 0	Japan
		(HT: 0 – 0)
	Khamis 58'
	Khamis 82'
	Muftah 90'

Group B

	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	4	2	2	0	4	1	6
	4	2	1	1	6	3	5
	4	2	0	2	2	5	4
	4	0	3	1	2	3	3
	4	0	2	2	1	3	2

December 2
	Saudi Arabia	2 – 0	Syria
		(HT: 1 – 0)
	Al-Saleh 20'
	Sherbani 82'
December 3
	Kuwait	0 – 0	Bahrain
		(HT: 0 – 0)
December 4
	P.R. China	3 – 0	Syria
		(HT: 3 – 0)
	Gao 13'
	Xie 14'
	Xie 19'
December 5
	Saudi Arabia	0 – 0	Kuwait
		(HT: 0 – 0)
December 6
	P.R. China	1 – 0	Bahrain
		(HT: 0 – 0)
	Zhang 78'
December 8
	Syria	1 – 0	Kuwait
		(HT: 1 – 0)
	Nasser 63'
December 9
	Saudi Arabia	1 – 1	Bahrain
		(HT: 0 – 1)
	Al-Ja'azeh 78'		Muhammad (pen)44'
December 10
	P.R. China	2 – 2	Kuwait
		(HT: 1 – 0)
	Ma 10'		Hussein (pen)60'
	Ma 87'		Muhammad (pen)62'
December 11
	Bahrain	0 – 1	Syria
		(HT: 0 – 0)
			Al-Hel 72'
December 12
	Saudi Arabia	1 – 0	P.R. China
		(HT: 0 – 0)
	Alibishin 56'

Semi-finals

---

December 14	Rep.of Korea	2 – 1	P.R. CHINA
		(HT: 0 – 0)
		(FT: 0 – 0)
	Lee 93'		Mai 100'
	Lee 102'
December 15	Saudi Arabia	1 – 0	Iran
		(HT:1 – 0)
	Abdullah 20'

Third Place Match

---

December 17
	Iran	0 – 0	P.R. China
		(HT: 0 – 0)
		(FT: 0 – 0)
		(AET: 0 – 0)
	Iran wins 3 – 0 on penalties

Final

---

December 18
	Saudi Arabia	0 – 0	Rep. of Korea
		(HT: 0 – 0)
		(FT: 0 – 0)
		(AET: 0 – 0)
	Saudi Arabia wins 4 – 3 on penalties
	Asian Cup 1988 champions: Saudi Arabia

Scoring players

---

3Goals: Lee Tae-Ho

2 goals: Ma Lin Xie Yuxin Farshad Pious Adel Khamis Mansour Muftah Khalid Salman Byun Byung-Joo Chung Hae-Won Hwang Seong-Hong Kim Joo-Sung

1 goal: Favad Muhammad Gao Shang Mai Chao Zhang Xiaowen Karim Bavi Adel Hussein Mansoor Muhammad Moshin Faray Saleh Mubarak Al-Saleh Mohamed Sherbani Fand Alibishin Yousuf Al-Ja’Azeh Majed Abdullah Walid Nasser Walid Al-Hel Mohamed Hasan Hussain Abdul Aziz Muhammad

Top scoring teams

---

11 goals:

7 goals:

5 goals:

3 goals:

2 goals:

1 goal:

0 goal:

Asian Cup | 1988 in football (soccer) | Football in Qatar

Fußball-Asienmeisterschaft 1988 | Coupe d'Asie des nations de football 1988 | Asian Cup 1988 | アジアカップ1988 | Puchar Azji 1988