2007 AFC Asian Cup Final
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| Event | 2007 AFC Asian Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 29 July 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Nashat Akram (Iraq) | ||||||
| Referee | Mark Shield (Australia) | ||||||
| Attendance | 60,000 | ||||||
| Weather | Clear 30 °C (86 °F) 45% humidity |
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The 2007 AFC Asian Cup Final was a football match that took place on 29 July 2007 at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, to determine the 2007 AFC Asian Cup champion. Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia 1–0 with a header from Younis Mahmoud from Hawar Mulla Mohammed's corner in the 73rd minute sealing the victory.
Before the match, Iraq had never reached the final of the Asian Cup, let alone won the tournament, while Saudi Arabia had appeared in five of the last six Asian Cup finals, winning three of them (1984, 1988 and 1996) and finishing as runners-up in the other two (1992 and 2000). This final was only the second all-Arab final in Asian Cup history, with the other being the 1996 edition.
Iraq entered the game as underdogs; the team only won two of their eight pre-tournament friendlies and both wins were against teams that did not qualify for the tournament. Their manager, Jorvan Vieira had only been in charge of the team for two months while the team were forced to train outside of their home country due to the lack of safety in their homeland; they also suffered from poor facilities as they did not have enough kits to last the tournament and had to order a new set of kits with a different design on midway through the tournament, and they struggled to travel to the different matches due to passport and financial problems. In fact, the war-torn nation almost pulled out of the game after two bomb attacks targeting jubilant football fans who were celebrating the semi-final win over South Korea killed at least 50 people and injured 135 but they decided to play on to honour the dead. Most pundits believed that if Iraq managed to pip Oman to second place in their group, they would be knocked out at the quarter-finals, but Iraq ended up finishing top of their group and then winning the whole tournament.
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