Asian Cup 2000

The Asian Football Confederation's Asian Cup 2000 finals were held in the Lebanon between October 12 and October 29. Japan defeated defending champion Saudi Arabia in the final match in Beirut.

Qualification

Lebanon qualified automatically as host.
Saudi Arabia qualified automatically as defending champions.

42 teams participates in a preliminary tournament. It is divided into 10 groups and the 1st place of each class is this participation in a convention. A total of 62 games were held starting with the Oman versus Tajikistan game on August 3, 1999.

The other 10 qualifying teams were:

China Indonesia Iran Iraq Japan Kuwait Repubulic of Korea Qatar Thailand Uzbekistan

Stadiums

Asian Cup 2000 was held in three venues:

Sports City Stadium, Beirut, Lebanon

Saida International Stadium, Sidon, Lebanon

International Olympic Stadium, Tripoli, Lebanon

Notes:

All times local (GMT + 0200)

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

Group A

As long as there was no special mention, Group A matches were held in Beirut.

Iran Iraq Thailand Lebanon

	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
3	2	1	0	6	1	7
3	1	1	1	6	4	4
3	0	2	1	2	4	2
3	0	2	1	3	7	2

Iraq	2 - 0	Thailand
Lebanon	0 - 4	Iran
Iran	1 - 1	Thailand
Lebanon	2 - 2	Iraq
Iran	1 - 0	Iraq
Lebanon	1 - 1	Thailand


October 12
	Iraq	2 – 0	Thailand	Tripoli (1505)
		(HT: 1 – 0)		Ref: Toru Kamikawa (JPN)
	Drain 27'
	Majid 58'


	Lebanon	0 – 4	Iran	Beirut (1845)
		(HT: 0 – 1)		Ref: Lu Jun (CHN)
			Bagheri 18'
			Estili 75'
			Estili 87'
			Daei 90'

October 15
	Iran	1 – 1	Thailand	Beirut (1705)
		(HT: 0 – 1)		Ref: Saad Kameel Mane (KUW)
	Daei 73'		Pituratana 12'

	Lebanon	2 – 2	Iraq	Beirut (1945)
		(HT: 1 – 2)		Ref: Kim Young Joo (KOR)
	Chahrour 28'		Sabah Khalaf 4'
	Hjeij 77'		Sabah Khalaf 22'

October 18
	Iran	1 – 0	Iraq	Sidon (1935)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: LU Jun (CHN)

	Daei 77'

	Lebanon	1 – 1	Thailand	Beirut (1935)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: Omar Al Mehanna (KSA)
	Fernandes 82'		Pituratana 57'

Group B

As long as there was no special mention, Group B matches were held in Tripoli.

P.R.China Kuwait Rep. of Korea Indonesia

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

Rep. of Korea	2 - 2	P.R.China
Kuwait	0 - 0	Indonesia
P.R.China	4 - 0	Indonesia
Rep. of Korea	0 - 1	Kuwait
P.R.China	0 - 0	Kuwait
Rep. of Korea	3 - 0	Indonesia


October 13
	Rep. of Korea	2 – 2	P.R.China	Tripoli (1705)
		(HT: 1 – 1)		Ref: Omer Al-Mehanah (KSA)
	Lee Young-Pyo 29'		Ma Mingyu 35'
	Noh Jung-Yoon 57'		Fan Zhiyi (pen) 65'


	Kuwait	0 – 0	Indonesia	Tripoli (1945)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: Tajaddin Fares (SYR)

October 16
	P.R.China	4 – 0	Indonesia	Tripoli (1705)
		(HT: 3 – 0)		Ref: Nabil Ayad (LBN)
	Li Ming 1'
	Shen Si (pen)7'
	Yan Chen 15'
	Qi Hong 89'

	Rep. of Korea	0 – 1	Kuwait	Tripoli (1945)
		(HT: 0 – 1)		Ref: Brian Hall (USA)
			Al-Houwaidi 42'

October 19
	China	0 – 0	Kuwait	Tripoli (1935)
		(HT: 0 – 0)



	Rep. of Korea	3 – 0	Indonesia	Beirut (1935)
		(HT: 1 – 0)		Ref: Toru Kamikawa (JPN)
	Lee Dong-Gook 30'
	Lee Dong-Gook 75'
	Lee Dong-Gook 89'

Group C

As long as there was no special mention, Group C matches were held in Sidon.

Japan Saudi Arabia Qatar Uzbekistan

	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
3	2	1	0	13	3	7
3	1	1	1	6	4	4
3	0	3	0	2	2	3
3	0	1	2	2	14	1

Saudi Arabia	1 - 4	Japan
Qatar	1 - 1	Uzbekistan
Japan	8 - 1	Uzbekistan
Saudi Arabia	0 - 0	Qatar
Saudi Arabia	5 - 0	Uzbekistan
Japan	1 - 1	Qatar


October 14
	Saudi Arabia	1 – 4	Japan	Sidon (1705)
		(HT: 0 – 2)		Ref: Ali Bujsaim (UAE)
	Morioka (og) 90'		Yanagisawa 22'
			Takahara 37'
			Nanami 53'
			Ono 88'


	Qatar	1 – 1	Uzbekistan	Sidon (1945)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: Mohd Nazri Abdullah (MAS)
	Al-Balooshi 60'		Kasimov 73'

October 17
	Japan	8 – 1	Uzbekistan	Sidon (1705)
		(HT: 5 – 1)		Ref: Shamsul Maidin (SIN)
	Morishima 7'		Lushan 28'
	Nishizawa 14'
	Takahara 17'
	Takahara 20'
	Nishizawa 24'
	Nishizawa 49'
	Takahara 57'
	Kitajima 78'

	Saudi Arabia	0 – 0	Qatar	Sidon (1945)
		(HT: 0 – 0)


October 20
	Saudi Arabia	5 – 0	Uzbekistan	Sidon (1935)
		(HT: 2 – 0)
	Al-Otaibi 18'
	Shalhoub 35'
	Shalhoub 78'
	Shalhoub 86'
	Temyat 88'


	Japan	1 – 1	Qatar	Beirut (1935)
		(HT: 0 – 1)		Ref: Ahmad Nabil Ayad (LEB)
	Nishizawa 60'		Al-Obaidaly '22

Best third places

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.

	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1- Rep. of Korea (Group B)	4	3	1	1	1	5	3
2- Qatar (Group C)	3	3		3		2	4
3- Thailand (Group A)	2	3		2	1	2	4

Rep. of Korea (best third place) and Qatar (second best third place) qualified for the quarter-finals.

Quarter-finals

October 23
QF1:	Iran	1 – 2	Rep. of Korea	Sidon (1645)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: Ali Bujsaim (UAE)
		(FT: 1 – 1)
		(AET: 1 – 2)
	Karim Bagheri 71'		Kim Sang-Sik 90'
			Lee Dong-Gook 99'

QF2:	P.R.China	3 – 1	Qatar	Sidon (1945)
		(HT: 2 – 0)		Ref: Tajaddin Fares (SYR)
	Li Ming 9'		Al-Enazi 65'
	Qi Hong 38'
	Yang Chen 54'

October 24
QF3:	Japan	4 – 1	Iraq	Beirut (1645)
		(HT: 3 – 1)		Ref: Tajaddin Fares (SYR)
	Nanami 8'		Jassim 4'
	Takahara 11'
	Nanami 29'
	Myojin 62'

QF4:	Kuwait	2 – 3	Saudi Arabia	Beirut (1945)
		(HT: 0 – 1)
		(FT: 2 – 2)
		(AET: 2 – 3)
	Bashar Abdullah 61'		Al-Temyat 46'
	Al-Houwaidi 67'		Al-Meshal 67'
			Al-Temyat 108'

Semi-finals

October 26
SF1:	Rep. of Korea	1 – 2	Saudi Arabia	Beirut (1645)
		(HT: 0 – 0)		Ref: Saad Kameel Mane (KUW)
	Lee Dong-Gook 90'		Al-Meshal 76'
			Al-Meshal 80'



SF2:	P.R.China	2 – 3	Japan	Beirut (1945)
		(HT:1 – 1)		Ref: Shamsul Maidin (Sin)
	Qi Hong 30'		Fan Zhiyi (og) 21'
	Yang Chen 48'		Nishizawa 53'
			Nishizawa 61'