Back كأس آسيا 2015 Arabic كاس آسيا 2015 ARZ Piala Asia AFC 2015 BAN Кубак Азіі па футболе 2015 году BE-X-OLD Купа на Азия по футбол 2015 Bulgarian ২০১৫ এএফসি এশিয়ান কাপ Bengali/Bangla AFC Azijski kup 2015. BS Mistrovství Asie ve fotbale 2015 Czech Fußball-Asienmeisterschaft 2015 German Copa Asiática 2015 Spanish
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Australia |
| Dates | 9–31 January |
| Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue(s) | 5 (in 5 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Australia (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  South Korea |
| Third place |  United Arab Emirates |
| Fourth place |  Iraq |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Goals scored | 85 (2.66 per match) |
| Attendance | 705,705 (22,053 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Ali Mabkhout (5 goals) |
| Best player(s) | Massimo Luongo |
| Best goalkeeper | Mathew Ryan |
| Fair play award | Australia |
← 2011 2019 → | |
Champion Runner-up | Third place Fourth place | Quarter-finals Group stage |
The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 2015.[1] The tournament was won by Australia after defeating South Korea 2–1 in extra time in the final, thereby earning the right to participate in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, which was hosted by Russia. The win was Australia's first Asian title since their move from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) in 2006. It was also the first time a men's team has become champions of two confederations, following Australia's four OFC Nations Cup titles: 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2004; right after the Australian women's team won the 2010 AFC Women's Asian Cup. Australia thus became the final and permanent holder of the old AFC Asian Cup trophy, as the new trophy would debut in the tournament four years later.[2][3]
Australia was chosen as the host on 5 January 2011, after being the sole bidder for the right to host the 2015 tournament. The matches were played in five different stadiums across five cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Newcastle. It was the first time that Australia had hosted the tournament, and it was also the first time the Asian Cup had been held outside the continent of Asia. As hosts, Australia automatically qualified for the final tournament, while the remaining 15 finalists (with the exception of Japan and South Korea who qualified via their top three position in the previous Asian Cup) were decided through a qualification process, featuring 44 teams, from February 2013 to March 2014.
The final tournament was played in two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage. In the group stage each team played three games in a group of four, with the winners and runners-up from each group advancing to the knockout stage. In the knockout stage the eight teams competed in single-elimination matches, beginning with the quarter-finals and ending with the final match of the tournament. A third-place match was also played between the two losing teams of the semi-finals (Iraq and the United Arab Emirates). This was also the last time the tournament had a third-place match, as it wasn't played since the 2019 edition.
Japan were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won the previous competition in 2011. They recorded their worst finish in the Asian Cup since the 1996 edition in the United Arab Emirates, being knocked out in the quarter-finals by that team in a penalty shootout.[4]