2004 AFC Asian Cup Final

China were assigned in the group A as hosts, facing Indonesia, Bahrain and Qatar in process. All of China's three group stage games were held in Beijing. China went to suffer a shock 2–2 draw over minnows Bahrain in the opening fixture, with Husain Ali buried China's hope for a maiden win with a goal in 89'.[2] China then routed Indonesia 5–0, with Shao Jiayi scored twice in China's emphatic win, added with Indonesia only played with ten men due to a red card by Alexander Pulalo after Shao's opening goal.[3] However, China struggled against a highly defensive Qatar in the final game, only won 1–0 by a 77th minute goal from Xu Yunlong to top the group and reached the quarter-finals.[4]

China's first opponents in the knockout stage were against Iraq, which finished second in the group B. China ran riots against Iraq, with Hao Haidong scored an early lead before Zheng Zhi netted two other penalties to give China a triumphant 3–0 win over the Iraqis.[5] In the semi-finals, China faced Iran, a far bigger test than Iraq. The Chinese opened the account first in 18' thank for Shao Jiayi, only to be equalised 20 minutes later by Mohammad Alavi. Iran was later reduced to ten men due to a red card given on Sattar Zare for shoving Shao Jiayi, before another red card was given in the second half on Iran's equaliser Alavi, who was already substituted in early of the second half, yet China failed to capitalise the opportunity and had to settle on penalty shootout, which it won 4–3, with Yahya Golmohammadi missed Iran's crucial penalty to book a place in the final for China.[6]

As the defending champions, Japan were drawn in group D with debutant Oman, alongside fellow powerhouse Iran and Thailand. All of Japan's group stage fixtures occurred in Chongqing, in which anti-Japanese hostilities were witnessed. Japan began with a hard-fought 1–0 win over Oman, by a courtesy from Shunsuke Nakamura.[7] Japan then overcame a shock goal down to beat Thailand 4–1, effectively knocked Thailand out of the tournament.[8] Japan then confirmed its top place in the group with a goalless draw over fellow powerhouse Iran.[9]

In the quarter-finals, Japan first faced Jordan, a major surprise in the tournament. To make thing difficult, Japan let Jordan to take an early lead by Mahmoud Shelbaieh in 11', before Takayuki Suzuki restore the level just three minutes later; though, Japan was dragged into the penalty shootout, and was expected to flounder after Nakamura and Alessandro dos Santos missed two of Japan's three first penalties while Jordanian counterparts succeeded in converting both, yet Jordan went on to miss four straight kicks due to a controversial decision, allowing Japan time to restore parity before winning 4–3 thanked for the successful final response from Tsuneyasu Miyamoto while Jordan's Bashar Bani Yaseen could not take it right.[10] In the last four, this time in Jinan, Japan once again struggled against another Arab opponents, this time Bahrain, enduring a thriller and even got a red card on Yasuhito Endo in 40', before came out ending victoriously 4–3 after extra times in an epic comeback to set up a final showdown with the Chinese hosts.[11]

China PR		Round	Japan
Opponent	Result	Group stage	Opponent	Result
Bahrain	2–2	Match 1	Oman	1–0
Indonesia	5–0	Match 2	Thailand	4–1
Qatar	1–0	Match 3	Iran	0–0
Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  China PR 7 3 2 1 0 8 2 +6  Bahrain 5 3 1 2 0 6 4 +2  Indonesia 3 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6  Qatar 1 3 0 1 2 2 4 −2		Final standing	Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA GD  Japan 7 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4  Iran 5 3 1 2 0 5 2 +3  Oman 4 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1  Thailand 0 3 0 0 3 1 9 −8
Opponent	Result	Knockout stage	Opponent	Result
Iraq	3–0	Quarterfinals	Jordan	1–1 (4–3 pen.)
Iran	1–1 (4–3 pen.)	Semifinals	Bahrain	4–3 (a.e.t.)