Apart from the 2023 Asian Cup, the only other tournament where the "big five" of Asian football mentioned above did not finish in the top two places of the tournament was in 1964, when the Asian Cup was held in Israel. That year, the host team Israel won the championship, while India finished second.
Qatar (red shirt) into the final
However, the 1964 Asian Cup only had 4 teams participating (the other 2 teams were South Korea and Hong Kong), playing in a round-robin format, scoring points, and ranking. Therefore, in 1964, there was no final match. Moreover, Israel had been away from Asian football for so long that people could hardly imagine Israel as an Asian team.
Before and after, there has never been a tournament where the "big five" of Asian football, including Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, were outside the top two rankings of the Asian Cup. In addition, since the Asian Championship had a final match (since the 1972 tournament in Thailand), there has never been a championship match without the "big five" group.
There were many years when the final was a purely intra-group affair. For example, in the 1972 Asian Cup, Iran beat South Korea 2-1 in the final. In 1988, Saudi Arabia beat South Korea in a penalty shootout in the final.
Four years later, at the 1992 Asian Cup, Japan beat Saudi Arabia 1-0. In 2000, Japan beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final. At the 2011 Asian Cup, Japan beat Australia 1-0 in the championship match.
The last time the Asian Championship final was an internal affair of the "big five" group was the 2015 Asian Cup final. At that time, Australia beat South Korea 2-1 to win the championship.
However, at the 2023 Asian Cup, none of the big five teams in Asian football will be present in the final match on February 10.
Asia's second most successful team, Saudi Arabia (3-time champions), was eliminated by South Korea (2-time champions) in the round of 16. South Korea then eliminated former 2015 champions Australia (1-time champions) in the quarterfinals. But when they reached the semi-finals, South Korea was defeated by Jordan.
On the other side, one of the two most successful teams in Asia, Iran (3-time champions), defeated the most traditional team in the continent, Japan (4-time champions), in the quarter-finals. However, Iran was defeated by the host Qatar in the semi-finals.
Jordan's entry into the finals was considered a surprise.
The final will be a clash between Qatar (one-time champion) and Jordan (never crowned). These two teams have never been ranked among the top five Asian teams before.
In particular, for Jordan, this is the first time they have appeared in the Asian Cup final. If Jordan wins against Qatar on February 10, Jordan will win the tournament for the first time. At the same time, if Jordan wins against Qatar, they will become the 10th team to win the Asian championship (after South Korea, Israel, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Iraq, Australia and Qatar).
And no matter what happens in the final, the 2023 Asian Cup will still be the most surprising tournament in history. The most expensive and highly rated teams before the match (both Japan), the most players playing in Europe (Australia), and the most expensive stars (South Korea) have all been eliminated. The finalists are two names that were rarely mentioned before the tournament started: Jordan and Qatar.
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