The Final in Numbers
Akram Afif was Qatar’s hero as his hat-trick of penalties defeated the tournament’s surprise package Jordan 3-1 and won the Maroons their second AFC Asian Cup title in front of more than 86,000 fans at Lusail Stadium.
As the dust begins to settle on another glorious campaign for Qatar, the-AFC.com reviews a memorable final by taking a closer look at some of the key facts and stats that caught the eye.
After being crowned the continental champions on home soil, Qatar became only the fifth team to successfully defend their AFC Asian Cup title after Korea Republic, Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
The Maroons have now matched the Koreans on two titles and only record champions Japan as well as Iran and Saudi Arabia, both on three AFC Asian Cup triumphs, have been more successful than them in the tournament.
The 86,492 fans who thronged the iconic Lusail Stadium for the tournament finale was the biggest attendance at the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup – after the 82,490 who turned for the opener between Qatar and Lebanon at the same venue on January 12.
Saturday’s crowd also meant that the total attendance during the tournament crossed the 1.5 million mark – 1,509,496 to be exact – which extended this AFC Asian Cup’s record as the most-attended edition in the tournament’s 68-year history.
Akram Afif became the first player to score a hat-trick in an AFC Asian Cup final. The 27-year-old is also the third player to score eight goals or more in a single edition of the tournament after Iranian legend Ali Daei who netted eight times in 1996 and Almoez Ali who scored a record nine goals during Qatar’s maiden triumph in 2019.
Saturday’s treble, achieved by converting three penalties, also helped Afif overtake Iraq striker Aymen Hussein, who had led the chart with six goals before the final, and bag the Yili Top Scorer award in the 2023 edition.
Jordan’s Noor Al Rawabdeh registered the most successful passes in the opposition half in Saturday’s final, completing 19 of the 31 passes that he attempted. Meanwhie, his teammate Yazan Al Arab completed the most passes as the centre-back succeeded with 42 of his 53 passes.
Incidentally, Jordan attempted a total of 357 passes at an accuracy of 71 percent compared to Qatar’s 270 passes at a 61 percent success rate.
Afif’s hat-trick not only helped him finish atop the goalscorers’ list but also saw Marquez Lopez’s Qatar wrap up the tournament as the topscoring team, overtaking runners-up Jordan, Japan and Iran, who had scored a joint-tournament-leading 12 goals prior to the final.
But 90 minutes later, it was the Maroons who finished the campaign on top with 14 goals, bettering Jordan’s tally of 13.
One of the driving forces behind Jordan’s fairytale run into the final, Mousa Al Tamari was the player with most touches in the opposition box in Saturday’s encounter, with the 26-year-old recording 10 touches in Qatar’s box.
But it was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player who had the biggest impact in the penalty area. Afif accounted for seven touches in Jordan’s box, including winning two of the three penalties that he converted in the final.
No player won more aerial duels in the final than Qatar centre-back Lucas Mendes who came out on top in six of the nine aerial duels he was involved in and played a pivotal role in his side’s second AFC Asian Cup triumph and his first after making international debut last year.
The 33-year-old defender was followed by his teammate Almoez Ali and Jordan’s Nizar Al Rashdan, who were involved in seven aerial duels and won five of them.
Meshaal Barsham was once again solid in goal for Qatar, making five saves during the final. Barsham did not concede a single goal in the group stage and was also the hero of his side’s shootout win against Uzbekistan in the quarter-final, taking home the best goalkeeper award.
His Jordanian counterpart Yazeed Abulaila, meanwhile, made four saves in the final after having kept back-to-back clean sheets in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Abdallah Nasib was impressive in defence for Jordan as he recorded four tackles (at a 100 percent success rate) and three interceptions – the most by a player in the final. Only Korea Republic’s Lee Jae-sung has bettered the defender in the tackles department this tournament – with Lee’s 17 successful tackles only one more than Nasib’s total tally.
Qatar duo Yusuf Abdurisag and Jassem Gaber were second when it came to successful tackles in the final, winning three of their four tackles.
BY: Nadeem Faisal Baiga
