The 2023 Asian Nations Cup football competitions will begin tomorrow, Friday, with the Qatari national team facing its Lebanese counterpart in the opening of the tournament at Lusail Stadium, in the tournament whose competitions will continue in Qatar until February 10.
Throughout the history of the tournament, the first edition of which was launched in 1956, there were many memorable opening matches, which the Asian Football Confederation spoke about on its official website, before the first confrontation in the 2023 edition.
In the following lines, we review the most prominent opening matches of the Asian Cup of Nations, which are still immortal in the minds of football fans.
The beginning of the 1996 Asian Nations edition, which was a milestone in the history of the tournament, as it was held for the first time with the participation of 12 teams distributed into 3 groups.
The host UAE faced South Korea in the opening of the 1996 edition (AFC)
The opening match was between the organizing country, the UAE, and its South Korean counterpart, and was held at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi, in the presence of 35,000 spectators.
The Korean team took the lead quickly in the ninth minute through Hwang Sun Hong, and despite the great control of the Korean team, the host team equalized five minutes before the end of the first half through Khamis Saad.
The two teams continued their path after that match in the tournament, as the UAE national team reached the final match and lost to its Saudi counterpart, who achieved the third title in its history, while the South Korean national team was eliminated from the quarter-finals after a major loss to Iran 2-6.
Host Lebanon opened its first Asian participation with a severe defeat (AFC)
At the opening of the 2000 Asian Nations edition in Lebanon, its national team participated in the tournament for the first time in its history, and although the first match in the tournament was held between Iraq and Thailand in the city of Sidon, the confrontation between Lebanon and Iran, which took place hours after the first meeting, served as the official opening of the tournament. .
Karim Bagheri scored the first goal for the Iranian team in the 19th minute, and the Lebanese team tried to keep up with its opponent during the first half, but it ended with Iran advancing by a clean goal.
In the 75th minute, Hamid Estili scored the second goal for the Iranian team, causing the Lebanese team’s resistance to collapse and the same player added the third goal in the 87th minute, while the star Ali Daei concluded the quadruple in the first minute of counted time instead of stoppage time for the second half.
Later, the Lebanese national team was eliminated from the group stage, after drawing with Iraq and Thailand, while the Iranian national team topped the group and qualified for the second round.
To face the South Korean national team, which took revenge from the harsh result in the previous edition in the Emirates, beating it 2-1 after two additional periods.
Bahrain wrestled fiercely with China at the opening of the 2004 edition (AFC)
In 2004, the Asian Confederation chose China to organize the tournament, an edition that witnessed the participation of 16 teams for the first time in the history of the tournament, with the participating teams divided into 4 groups.
The opening match was held at the Workers’ Stadium in the capital, Beijing, with 40,000 spectators attending to support China against Bahrain, which participated in the tournament for the second time at the time.
The Bahraini team absorbed the terrible Chinese pressure during the first minutes through a defensive system that succeeded in reducing the Chinese threat.
While everyone in the match stadium was waiting for a goal from Sun Jihai, the English Manchester City player, and veteran star Hao Haidong, the Bahraini team succeeded in scoring the lead goal in the 41st minute through Mohammed Hubail, through a ball that he put over the goalkeeper to score the net.
After the end of the first half with the Bahraini lead, the Chinese superiority was demonstrated through direct pressure after the whistle of the second half, and succeeded in obtaining a penalty kick executed by Zheng Zhi in the net, before the referee asked to re-execute the strike, so the player succeeded again in scoring it in the 58th minute.
China’s pressure resulted in another goal from Li Jinyu in the 66th minute, sparking huge celebrations in the stands as the opening victory approached.
In the last minute of the second half, the Bahraini team scored the fatal equalizer against China through Hussein Ali, causing great disappointment to the Chinese fans, but their team continued on its way to the final, before losing to Japan at the same stadium, while the Bahraini team got the Fourth place after losing to Iran in the third place match with a score of 2-4.
Iraq opened the 2007 edition with a draw to win the Asian title at the end (AFC)
As for the 2007 version, the organization was assigned to four countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and this happened for the first and last time in the history of the country.
Asian Championships.
The opening match of that tournament was held between Thailand, one of the tournament’s host countries, and Iraq at Rajamangala Stadium in the capital, Bangkok.
It witnessed a large audience attendance.
The Thai team took the lead in the sixth minute through Soti Soksmockit from a penalty kick, but the Iraqi team quickly equalized through Younis Mahmoud in the 32nd minute.
While Thailand was unable to reach the second round, the Iraqi team presented a historic tournament that ended with it winning the title for the first time in its history at the expense of the Saudi team in the final, which was held in Indonesia.
Host Australia opened the 2015 edition with a four-goal win against Kuwait (AFC)
Australia hosted the tournament for the first time in its history in 2015, and the draw placed its team in Group A alongside the teams of Kuwait, South Korea, and Oman.
The opening match was held in Melbourne, and brought together Australia and the Kuwaiti team, champions of the 1980 edition.
Only eight minutes passed for the Kuwaiti team to score the first goal thanks to a header from Hussein Fadel, but the Australian team scored the equalizer and took the lead before the end of the first half through Tim Cahill and Massimo Luongo in the 33rd and last minutes of the first half, respectively.
The Australian team continued to excel in the second half, with Mile Jedinak scoring a third goal from a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, while James Troisi completed the quadruple in the last minute of the second half.
The Australian team won the title of that edition, after defeating South Korea in the final match, while the Kuwaiti team was eliminated from the first round after also losing to South Korea and Oman.
2024-01-11 09:53:03
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