wins respectively, to set up an entirely East Asian affair in the semi-finals, with Saudi Arabia being the only non-East Asian team to be here. The first semi-finals saw Saudi Arabia sealed the victory over the South Koreans, with two goals by Talal Al-Meshal at 76' and 80' meant Lee Dong-gook's late equalizer was too little, too late. Japan beat China in a thriller in Beirut, 3–2, to once again face the Saudis in the final. In the third place match, South Korea won bronze with a 1–0 win over China. The final in Beirut was filled with majority of Saudi supporters, and was seen as the rematch of the 1992 final and earlier group stage encounter. Hamzah Idris had a chance to take the Saudis ahead of Japan at 10', but he missed the opportunity. Eventually, the missing penalty was what the Saudis regretted the most, because Shigeyoshi Mochizuki, who had accidentally given the Saudis the failed opportunity on the penalty earlier, became the hero of Japan with a goal in 30'. Saudi attempt proved to be fruitless, and Japan won the game by just one goal margin, to conquer its second Asian trophy, repeating Japan's victory over Saudi Arabia eight years ago. Subsequently, Japan, the winner, automatically qualified for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup. First round All times are Lebanon summer time (UTC+3). Group A Group B Group C Third-placed qualifiers At the end of the first stage, a comparison was made between the third placed teams of each group. The two best third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals. South Korea and Qatar, the two best third-placed teams, qualified for the quarter-finals. Knockout stage All times are Lebanon summer time (UTC+3) Extra times were played under the golden goal rule. Quarter-finals Semi-finals Third place play-off Final Statistics Goalscorers With six goals, Lee Dong-Gook is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 77 goals were scored by 43 different players, with two of them credited as own goals. 6 goals Lee Dong-gook 5 goals Akinori Nishizawa Naohiro Takahara 3 goals Qi Hong Yang Chen Ali Daei Hiroshi Nanami Talal Al-Meshal Mohammad Al-Shalhoub Nawaf Al-Temyat 2 goals Li Ming Karim Bagheri Hamid Estili Sabah Jeayer Tomokazu Myojin Jasem Al-Huwaidi Sakesan Pituratana 1 goal Fan Zhiyi Shen Si Su Maozhen Qahtan Chathir Abbas Obeid Haidar Mahmoud Hideaki Kitajima Shigeyoshi Mochizuki Hiroaki Morishima Shinji Ono Atsushi Yanagisawa Kim Sang-sik Lee Young-pyo