United Arab Emirates at the AFC Asian Cup

The United Arab Emirates is one of the more successful teams in the Asian Cup qualifying for ten editions from 1980 to 2019. They have qualified for the semi-finals on four occasions, as well as the final in 1996, however they have never won an Asian Cup.

Asian Cup record

AFC Asian Cup										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA		GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1956 to 1972	Part of the  United Kingdom									Part of the  United Kingdom
1976	Did not enter									Did not enter
1980	Group stage	9th	4	0	1	3	3	9		3	1	2	0	2	0
1984	Group stage	6th	4	2	0	2	3	8		4	3	0	1	24	2
1988	Group stage	8th	4	1	0	3	2	4		5	4	1	0	12	1
1992	Fourth place	4th	5	1	3	1	3	4		2	2	0	0	6	3
1996	Runners-up	2nd	6	4	2	0	8	3		Qualified as hosts
2000	Did not qualify									4	3	0	1	12	2
2004	Group stage	15th	3	0	1	2	1	5		6	4	1	1	13	5
2007	Group stage	12th	3	1	0	2	3	6		6	4	1	1	11	6
2011	Group stage	13th	3	0	1	2	0	4		4	3	0	1	7	1
2015	Third place	3rd	6	3	1	2	10	8		6	5	1	0	18	3
2019	Semi-finals	4th	6	3	2	1	8	8		Qualified as hosts
2023	Round of 16	12th	4	1	2	1	6	5		8	6	0	2	23	7
2027	TBD									2	2	0	0	6	0
Total	Runners-up	2nd	48	16	13	19	46	65		50	37	6	7	134	30

United Arab Emirates's Asian Cup record
First Match	United Arab Emirates 1–1 Kuwait  (15 September 1980; Kuwait City, Kuwait)
Biggest Win	United Arab Emirates 4–1 Qatar  (11 January 2015; Canberra, Australia)
Biggest Defeat	China 5–0 United Arab Emirates  (11 December 1984; Kallang, Singapore)
Best Result	Second Place in 1996
Worst Result	Group stage in 1980, 1984, 1988, 2004, 2007, 2011

Record by Opponent

AFC Asian Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Total	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA	GD
Australia	2	1	0	1	1	2	–1
Bahrain	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1
China	2	0	1	1	1	6	–5
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2
India	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4
Indonesia	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Iran	6	0	1	5	1	10	–9
Iraq	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1
Japan	4	1	2	1	3	4	–1
Jordan	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Kuwait	4	2	1	1	6	6	0
Kyrgyzstan	1	1	0	0	3	2	+1
Malaysia	1	0	0	1	0	2	–2
North Korea	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1
Palestine	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Qatar	5	2	0	3	8	10	–2
Saudi Arabia	2	0	1	1	0	2	–2
Singapore	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
South Korea	4	0	1	3	2	8	–6
Tajikistan	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Thailand	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Vietnam	1	0	0	1	0	2	–2

1980 AFC Asian Cup

The UAE would make their first appearance in the 1980 AFC Asian Cup. This was seen as a historic achievement as it would serve the first stepping stone for UAE's golden era. They would draw to the eventual champions Kuwait, but lose their remaining games and finish bottom of the group.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	4	3	1	0	10	2	+8	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Kuwait (H)	4	2	1	1	8	5	+3	5
3	Malaysia	4	1	2	1	5	5	0	4
4	Qatar	4	1	1	2	3	8	−5	3
5	United Arab Emirates	4	0	1	3	3	9	−6	1

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1984 AFC Asian Cup

In the 1984 edition, the UAE would see an improvement as they collected their first two victories against India and Singapore but took two devastating defeats against Iran and China which resulted in another group stage exit.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	4	3	0	1	10	2	+8	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iran	4	2	2	0	6	1	+5	6
3	United Arab Emirates	4	2	0	2	3	8	−5	4
4	Singapore (H)	4	1	1	2	3	4	−1	3
5	India	4	0	1	3	0	7	−7	1

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1988 AFC Asian Cup

During the 1988 AFC Asian Cup, the UAE would again lose in the group stages, only winning once against Japan. Despite this devastating campaign, the UAE would qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup a year later.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	4	4	0	0	9	2	+7	8	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iran	4	2	1	1	3	3	0	5
3	Qatar (H)	4	2	0	2	7	6	+1	4
4	United Arab Emirates	4	1	0	3	2	4	−2	2
5	Japan	4	0	1	3	0	6	−6	1

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1992 AFC Asian Cup

In the 1992 AFC Asian Cup, the United Arab Emirates would qualify for the semi-finals for the first time after winning against North Korea and drawing against Japan and Iran. They would find themselves losing to neighbouring rivals Saudi Arabia and finish fourth after losing a penalty shoot out against China.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan (H)	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	4	Advance to knockout stage
2	United Arab Emirates	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	4
3	Iran	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	3
4	North Korea	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

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Semi-final

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Third place play-off

1996 AFC Asian Cup

The 1996 Asian Cup would mark as the first time the UAE won the hosting rights and qualified automatically. The UAE would play its opening game to South Korea where they drew 1–1. They would later beat Kuwait and Indonesia and finish at the top of their group with seven points. They would face Iraq in the quarter-finals which ended with the Emirates winning 1–0 during golden goal time which meant the UAE would qualify for the semi-finals for the second consecutive time. They would once again beat Kuwait and qualify for their first final against the Saudis. Unfortunately for the UAE, they would once again find themselves losing to Saudi Arabia after a penalty shootout that resulted in 2–4.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates (H)	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Kuwait	3	1	1	1	6	5	+1	4
3	South Korea	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4	Indonesia	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1

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Quarter-final

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Semi-final

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Final

2004 AFC Asian Cup

Even though they were successful in their last run, the UAE would fail to qualify for the 2000 Asian Cup which meant they needed to compensate in this edition. However they would lose two games and draw once, finishing at the bottom of the group with 1 point for the first time since 1980.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	2	1	0	6	0	+6	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Jordan	3	1	2	0	2	0	+2	5
3	Kuwait	3	1	0	2	3	7	−4	3
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

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2007 AFC Asian Cup

Entering this tournament would mark as their seventh appearance and the Emiratis were a contender to make it past the group stage. However the first game resulted in a 0–2 upsetting defeat to Vietnam in which the game would be titled as the Disaster of Hanoi.^[1] They would lose to Japan, thus confirming that the UAE would once again get another early group exit but they would leave with a victory against Qatar and finish third with three points.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Vietnam (H)	3	1	1	1	4	5	−1	4
3	United Arab Emirates	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Qatar	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2

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2011 AFC Asian Cup

In 2011, the UAE would lose to Iraq and Iran but draw to North Korea, this resulted in their worst campaign as they finished at the bottom of the group with zero goals scored.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6
3	North Korea	3	0	1	2	0	2	−2	1
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4	1

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2015 AFC Asian Cup

After three consecutive group stage exits, the UAE would finally get past the group stage after smashing Qatar 4–1 and beating Bahrain 2–1, they would finish second after losing to Iran 0–1 which meant facing the defending champions Japan in the quarter-finals. However, in a surprising turn of events, the UAE would beat Japan in a penalty shootout that ended 5–4. This was seen as one of the biggest upsets in the tournament's history as the Japanese have won the last three out of four Asian cups and are seen as a heavy favourites. Their campaign would end in the semi-finals after a 0–2 loss to the hosts Australia but ultimately finished third place after winning against Iraq 3–2.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	4	0	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	United Arab Emirates	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
3	Bahrain	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	Qatar	3	0	0	3	2	7	−5	0

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Quarter-final

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Semi-final

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Third place play-off

2019 AFC Asian Cup

The UAE would win the hosting rights for the second time in 2019. They would finish first in their group with an unorthodox campaign, drawing to Bahrain and Thailand but winning against India, they only obtained 5 points which is less than any other group champion in that tournament. The UAE would struggle to beat Kyrgyzstan, only winning due to a penalty awarded during extra time. They would beat Australia 1–0 which meant that this was the second consecutive time the defending champion was knocked out by the UAE, coincidentally both were eliminated in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately the UAE would lose the semi-finals for the second consecutive time in an embarrassing 0–4 loss to Qatar and things got dirty when fans started throwing water bottles and footwear to the Qatari players.^[2]

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates (H)	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5	Advance to knockout stage
2	Thailand	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4[a]
3	Bahrain	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4[a]
4	India	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3

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Round of 16

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Quarter-final

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Semi-final

2023 AFC Asian Cup

The UAE opened their first game with a victory against Hong Kong albeit with two penalties rewarded on the way, their following match ended with a draw against Palestine with an own goal costing them the match. Their final group match against Iran ended with a loss but the UAE still finished second in the group. The UAE would play their first knockout game against debutant Tajikistan which ended as a draw and went on extra time. Neither found an opportunity to score during the extra time so the game resulted on penalties which saw the UAE lose 3–5. This was considered one of the weakest campaigns despite making it to the knockouts as the UAE reached the semi-finals two consecutive times in the last two editions.

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	United Arab Emirates	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
3	Palestine	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4	Hong Kong	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

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Knockout stage

Round of 16

Goalscorers

Player	Goals	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2004	2007	2015	2019	2023
Ali Mabkhout	9								5	4
Ahmed Khalil	6								4	2
Hassan Ahmed	3					3
Adnan Al-Talyani	3		1			2
Sultan Adil	2										2
Saeed Al Kass	2							2
Yahya Al-Ghassani	2										2
Ahmed Chombi	2	2
Khamees Mubarak	2				1	1
Farooq Abdulrahman	1		1
Ghanem Al Hajri	1	1
Khalifa Al Hammadi	1										1
Zuhair Bakhit	1				1
Khamis Esmaeel	1									1
Abdulrahman Ibrahim	1					1
Khaled Ismail	1				1
Faisal Khalil	1							1
Fahad Khamees	1		1
Abdulaziz Mohamed	1			1
Hassan Mohamed	1			1
Bakheet Mubarak	1					1
Khalfan Mubarak	1									1
Mohamed Rashid	1						1
Zayed Sultan	1						1				1
Total	46	3	3	2	3	8	1	3	9	8	6

See also

• United Arab Emirates at the FIFA World Cup

References