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. 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 other 10 qualifying teams were:
| Country | Qualified as | Date qualification was secured | Previous appearances in tournament[|1], [|2] |
| 1992 | |||
| 1992 AFC Asian Cup winners | 8 November 1992 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 9 winners | 2 February 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 2 winners | 4 February 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 4 winners | 6 March 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 8 winners | 19 June 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 10 winners | 20 June 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 5 winners | 21 June 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 3 winners | 9 July 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 7 winners | 19 July 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 1 winners | 11 August 1996 | ||
| Qualifying round Group 6 winners | 13 August 1996 |
Notes:
Squads
Venues
| Abu Dhabi | Al Ain |
| Sheikh Zayed Stadium | Tahnoun bin Mohammed Stadium |
| Capacity: 60,000 | Capacity: 15,000 |
| Dubai | |
| Al-Maktoum Stadium | |
| Capacity: 12,000 | |
First round
All times are UAE timeGroup A
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Group B
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Group C
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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 and South Korea qualified for the quarter-finals.
Knockout stage
All times are UAE timeQuarter-finals
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Semi-finals
----Third place play-off
Final
Statistics
Goalscorers
With eight goals, Ali Daei is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 80 goals were scored by 47 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.8 goals
- Ali Daei
4 goals
3 goals
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 Jokhadar
- Adnan Al-Talyani
- 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 Al-Sheikh Dib
- Dusit Chalermsan
- Kiatisuk Senamuang
- Abdulrahman Ibrahim
- Saad Bakheet Mubarak
- Khamis Saad
- Sergey Lebedev
- Oleg Shatskikh
- Igor Shkvyrin
- Hassan Abbas
Awards
- Khodadad Azizi
- Ali Daei
Fair Play Award
Team of the Tournament
| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
 Mohamed Al-Deayea | Abdullah Zubromawi  Yousef Saleh  Mohammad Khakpour | Mehrdad Minavand Mohamed Ali Khalid Al-Muwallid Saad Bakheet Mubarak | Fahad Al-Mehallel  Jasem Al-Huwaidi Ali Daei |