War-ravaged Iraq win Asia's top football title

Iraqi players hold up the Asian Cup trophy after their win over Saudi Arabia in the final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

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Jakarta: Iraq completed one of sport's great fairytales by beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final on Sunday to provide a rare moment for celebration in their war-torn homeland.

The Saudis had been bidding to become the first four times winners of the tournament but Iraq, riding a wave of global sentiment, upset the hot-favourites for a rare slice of sporting glory.

"This is not just about football... this is more important than that," Iraq's Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira told a news conference.

"This has brought great happiness to a whole country. This is not about a team, this is about human beings."

Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud scored the winner in the 71st minute when he climbed above the defence at the far post and headed a perfectly-weighted corner from Hawar Mulla Mohammed into the net.

The Iraqis might have had won more comfortably if they had capitalised on their many scoring chances, only to be denied by a combination of sloppy finishing and extraordinary saves from Saudi goalkeeper Yasser Al Mosailem.

Saudi Arabia had been the best attacking team in the tournament, scoring 12 goals on their way to the final, but could not find a way past the Iraqis, who had the best defence in the competition, conceding just two goals in six matches.

"Iraq deserved to win today," Saudi coach Helio Cesar dos Anjos said.

"They were very motivated and we knew the whole world was supporting this team."

Haphazard preparation

Few people had given Iraq any chance of winning the tournament after haphazard preparations brought about by the war at home and facing opponents appearing in their sixth final in the last seven Asian Cups.

Iraq were forced to train and play qualifiers in neutral countries and Vieira, who confirmed his resignation after the match, only had two months to mould a team that included Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish players.

"I have learnt a lot from this last two months," Vieira said.