History of the 5 Gulf teams participating in the Asian Cup in the continental championship (1)

The eighteenth edition of the Qatar 2023 Continental Championship will start the day after tomorrow, which will be hosted by Doha from January 12 to February 10, with the participation of 24 teams, including five Gulf countries: Qatar (the host country), which came in the first group with China, Tajikistan, and Lebanon, while the UAE came in the third group, with Iran, Hong Kong, and Palestine, while the draw placed Iraq in the fourth group alongside Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam, and Bahrain comes in the group. The fifth group is next to South Korea, Malaysia, and Jordan, while the sixth group brought together the Saudi and Omani teams, in addition to Thailand and Kyrgyzstan.

During these lines, we will review for you the history of the five teams’ participation in the Asian Cup, as the Saudi Green is the third most participating team in the Asian Cup tournaments over the past years, with 10 times, equally with Qatar, Kuwait and the Emirates, behind Iran and South Korea with 14 participations, then China with 12 participations.

The Saudi team won the title 3 times, and came in runner-up on 3 occasions, and is equal in number of titles to the Iranian team, while Japan leads with 4 titles, and South Korea has two titles.

The first Saudi participation in the continental championship was in 1984 in Singapore, where it witnessed the Green team achieving its first title after defeating China (2-0) in the final match. Four years later, the Saudi team won the title again on the soil of Qatar, at the expense of South Korea with kicks. Penalty shootout (4-3), after the match ended in a draw (0-0).

In the 1992 edition in Japan, the Saudi team reached the final match, but lost to the hosts (1-0), then climbed to the podium for a third time in 1996 in the Emirates, after defeating the Emirati team (2-4) on penalties, while The Greens achieved runner-up for the second time during the 2000 edition in Lebanon, after losing to Japan in the final (1-0), then exiting from the group stage in the 2004 edition in China.

The 2007 Asian Cup witnessed four countries hosting the tournament: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, in which Saudi Arabia came in second place for the third time in its history, after losing (1-0) to its Iraqi counterpart in the final match.

After achieving runner-up status, the Saudi national team was twice eliminated from the group stage of the Asian Cup in 2011 and 2015 in Qatar and Australia, then failed to complete its path during the 2019 edition in the Emirates, after losing (1-0) to Japan in the round of 16.

The Saudi team played 48 matches in the Asian Cup in its 10 participations, achieving victory in 21 matches, drawing 13 times, and losing in 14 matches. Its players scored 69 goals and conceded 48 goals. The first Saudi goal in the continental event was signed by the legend Majed Abdullah during the match against South Korea in 1984, which ended in a positive draw (1-1), the striker Yasser Al-Qahtani was the owner of the fastest Saudi goal in the history of the Asian Cup tournaments, in the second minute during the match with Uzbekistan in 2007, which ended with the Saudi team’s superiority (2- 1).

While the Saudi player who participated most in the Asian Cup tournaments is the former defender, Muhammad Al-Khelaiwi, who played 15 matches, followed by the midfielder, Yousef Al-Thunayan, with 14 matches, then the left winger, Khaled Massad, with 13 matches in 3 editions of the competition, equally with the midfielder. , Saud Kariri, but the latter reached this number in 4 copies, and Yasser Al-Qahtani is at the top of the Saudi scorers in the Asian Cup championships throughout the ages, with 6 goals, and then comes after him the trio of Fahd Al-Muhallal, Fahd Al-Harifi, and Youssef Al-Thunayan, with 4 goals each.

As for the Iraqi national team, it previously participated in the Asian Cup during 9 previous editions in 1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

The Iraqi team’s journey began with the Asian Cup in the 1972 edition, where they exited the tournament in the group stage by losing to Iran 0-3 and then drawing with Thailand 1-1.

In the 1976 edition, the Iraqi team lost to Iran 0-2, then beat the Yemeni team 1-0, while losing to Kuwaiti Blue in the semi-finals 2-3, before achieving fourth place after losing to China 0-1.

The Iraqi national team then missed participating in 4 editions, before returning in the 1996 edition, where it opened its campaign by defeating Iran 2-1, then lost to Saudi Arabia 0-1, and defeated Thailand 4-1, before exiting the tournament in the quarter-finals after losing to the Emirati White 0-1, via a golden goal, and in the next edition in 2000, the Iraqi national team exited the tournament in the quarter-finals as well, as the journey began with a victory over Thailand 2-0 and a draw with Lebanon 1-1, then it lost to Iran 0- 1, before losing to Japan 1/4.

The situation continued as it was, with another exit from the quarter-finals during the 2004 edition, where the Iraqi national team lost the first round match against Uzbekistan 0/1, then won over Turkmenistan 3/2 and Saudi Arabia 2/1, before losing to China 0/ 3 and leaves the tournament.

Iraq was lucky to achieve the title for the first time during the 2007 edition, which witnessed the brilliance of many stars such as Younis Mahmoud, Nashat Akram and other wonderful names, but since achieving that title it has not achieved any medal in the Asian Championship during the subsequent participations, and the 2011 edition witnessed the loss of the Iraqi team from Iran 1-2 in the first round, then regained its balance by defeating the UAE 1-0 and North Korea with the same score, but it exited the tournament at the hands of Australia with a 0-1 loss.

The Iraqi national team achieved fourth place in the 2015 edition, starting its journey by defeating Jordan 1-0 and Palestine 2-0, losing to Japan 0-1, and defeating Iran in the quarter-finals 7-6 on penalties, before losing the next match to South Korea 0-2. , and lost to the UAE in the third place match 2-3, while the 2019 edition witnessed it surpassing the group stage with two victories over Vietnam 3-2 and Yemen 3-0 and a draw with Iran 0-0, but it was defeated by Qatar, the defending champion, with a goal without a response in the match finale.

Younis Mahmoud is the all-time top scorer for the Iraqi national team in the Asian Nations Cup, with 8 goals, and the most participating Iraqi player in the tournament and second overall, as he appeared during 4 previous editions in 2004, 2007, 2011 and 2015. In the 2004 edition, Younis was able to score once, then he scored 4 goals in the next edition in which the Iraqi team won, and in the 2011 edition, he scored one goal, while he scored a brace during his last appearance in the tournament in 2015.