2000 AFC Asian Cup


The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation. The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 October 2000. Japan defeated defending champion Saudi Arabia in the final match in Beirut.

Qualification

42 teams participated in a preliminary tournament. It was divided into 10 groups and the first-placed team of each group thus qualified. A total of 84 games were held, starting with the Oman versus Kyrgyzstan game on 3 August 1999.
The other 10 qualifying teams were:
CountryQualified asDate qualification was securedPrevious appearances in tournament[|1], [|2]
1996
1996 AFC Asian Cup winners21 December 1996
Qualifying round Group 1 winners7 August 1999
Qualifying round Group 7 winners20 November 1999
Qualifying round Group 3 winners26 November 1999
Qualifying round Group 9 winners29 January 2000
Qualifying round Group 5 winners18 February 2000
Qualifying round Group 10 winners20 February 2000
Qualifying round Group 4 winners8 April 2000
Qualifying round Group 6 winners9 April 2000
Qualifying round Group 8 winners9 April 2000
Qualifying round Group 2 winners11 April 2000

Notes:

Stadiums

BeirutSidonTripoli
Sports City StadiumSaida International StadiumInternational Olympic Stadium
Capacity: 47,799Capacity: 22,600Capacity: 22,400

Squads

First round

All times are Lebanon summer time.

Group A



----
----
----
----
----

Group B



----
----
----
----
----

Group C



----
----
----
----
----

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.


South Korea and Qatar qualified for the quarter-finals.

Knockout stage

All times are Lebanon summer time
Extra times were played under the golden goal rule.

Quarter-finals

----
----
----

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

With six goals, Lee Dong-Gook is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 77 goals were scored by 43 different players, with two of them credited as own goals.
6 goals
5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goal
Most Valuable Player
Top scorer
Best Defender
Best Goalkeeper
Fair Play Award
Team of the Tournament
GoalkeepersDefendersMidfieldersForwards

Jiang Jin
Hong Myung-bo

Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi

Jamal Mubarak
Hiroshi Nanami

Nawaf Al-Temyat

Abbas Obeid

Karim Bagheri

Shunsuke Nakamura
Lee Dong-gook

Naohiro Takahara

Final standings