Football Asian Cup 1988

The 9th Asian Football Championship took place in Qatar from December 2nd to 18th, 1988 . The largest Asian football tournament has been held by the Asian Football Association (AFC) since 1956 .

Defending champion Saudi Arabia won the final against South Korea . The tournament's top scorer was Lee Tae-ho (South Korea) with three goals.

The venues were the Al-Ahli Stadium and the Qatar SC Stadium , both in the capital Doha .

qualification

→ Main article : 1988 Asian Football Championship / qualification

Automatically qualified:

•  Qatar as a host
•  Saudi Arabia as defending champion

The following eight teams were also able to qualify:

•  Bahrain
•  People's Republic of China
•  Iran
•  Japan
•  Kuwait
•  South Korea
•  Syria
•  United Arab Emirates

Preliminary round

Group A

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	South Korea	4th	4th	0	0	009: 200	+7	08th
2.	Iran	4th	2	1	1	003: 300	± 0	05
3.	Qatar	4th	2	0	2	009: 700	+2	04th
4th	UAE	4th	1	0	3	003: 600	−3	02
5.	Japan	4th	0	1	3	000: 600	−6	01

2nd December 1988
Iran	-	Qatar	2: 0 (1: 0)
3rd December 1988
South Korea	-	UAE	1: 0 (1: 0)
4th December 1988
Iran	-	Japan	0-0
5th December 1988
Qatar	-	UAE	4: 2 (2: 1)
December 6, 1988
South Korea	-	Japan	2: 0 (2: 0)
December 8, 1988
Iran	-	UAE	1: 0 (1: 0)
December 9, 1988
South Korea	-	Qatar	3: 2 (2: 0)
December 10, 1988
Japan	-	UAE	0: 1 (0: 0)
December 11, 1988
South Korea	-	Iran	3: 0 (2: 0)
December 12, 1988
Qatar	-	Japan	3: 0 (0: 0)

Group B

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Saudi Arabia	4th	3	0	1	004: 100	+3	06th
2.	People's Republic of China	4th	2	1	1	006: 300	+3	05
3.	Syria	4th	2	0	2	002: 500	−3	04th
4th	Kuwait	4th	1	1	2	002: 300	−1	03
5.	Bahrain	4th	0	2	2	001: 300	−2	02

2nd December 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	Syria	2: 0 (1: 0)
3rd December 1988
Kuwait	-	Bahrain	0-0
4th December 1988
China	-	Syria	3: 0 (3: 0)
5th December 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	Kuwait	0-0
December 6, 1988
China	-	Bahrain	1: 0 (0: 0)
December 8, 1988
Syria	-	Kuwait	1: 0 (1: 0)
December 9, 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	Bahrain	1: 1 (0: 1)
December 10, 1988
China	-	Kuwait	2: 2 (1: 0)
December 11, 1988
Bahrain	-	Syria	0: 1 (0: 0)
December 12, 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	China	1: 0 (0: 0)

Final round

Semifinals

December 14, 1988
South Korea	-	China	2: 1 a.d. (0: 0)
December 15, 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	Iran	1: 0 (1: 0)

3rd place match

17th December 1988
Iran	-	China	0: 0 a.d., 3: 0 i. E.

final

December 18, 1988
Saudi Arabia	-	South Korea	0: 0 a.d., 4: 3 in E.

Best goal scorers

rank	player	Gates
1	Lee Tae-ho	3
2	Ma Lin	2
	Farshad Peevos	2
	Nobility Khamis	2
	Mansour Muftah	2
	Khalid Salman	2
	Byun Byung-joo	2
	Chung Hae-won	2
	Hwang Seong-hong	2
	Kim Joo-sung	2