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2014 AFC Challenge Cup Final

The National Football Stadium where it was held.
Event	2014 AFC Challenge Cup
Palestine Philippines 1 0
Date	30 May 2014
Venue	National Football Stadium, Malé
Referee	Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)
Attendance	6,500
Weather	Cloudy 28 °C (82 °F)

The 2014 AFC Challenge Cup Final was an association football match between Palestine and the Philippines on 30 May 2014 at the National Football Stadium in Malé, Maldives.

Background

The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nations that was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" program. It was an idea by former AFC president, Mohammed Bin Hammam which its goal to raise the standards of Asian football at all levels. The AFC Challenge Cup, which reflected the philosophy of "Vision Asia", was created for teams to experience playing in a continental competition with the possibility to win an AFC trophy and potentially discover new talent. It was held in every two years as its inaugural edition took place on 2006 in Bangladesh. This 2014 Challenge Cup was the last season, due to the expansion of participating national teams in the AFC Asian Cup from 16 to 24. Maldives won the hosting rights, with two renovated stadiums (Addu Football Stadium and National Football Stadium) were used as venues in the tournament. The winner will advance automatically to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

The two countries met twice before the finals match. Their first meeting was in the qualification phase of the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup on 23 March 2011 which ended in a goalless draw. While their second match together was at the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup third-place playoff, where the Filipinos won the game, 4–3. That result causes the Philippines to grab their best finish yet in a major tournament. While, Palestine head coach Jamal Mahmoud described their last game against them was "the worst game that we ever played in international football". The Philippines were considered the "favorites" heading towards the game. Goal.com predicted that the Filipinos will more likely to beat Palestine in a 2–1 scoreline.

Route to the final

Further information: 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualification and 2014 AFC Challenge Cup

Before going to the main contest proper, all participating countries except Maldives will compete in a qualifying round. Twenty nations confirmed their interest to take part. But over time, Cambodia and Brunei eventually withdrew from the competition. There were 19 teams in the qualifying round. The winner of each group, and the best and better ranked second placed teams will qualify. The teams in the group stages was trimmed down to eight, with the first and second ranked teams of each group will advance to the knockout stage.

Palestine		Round	Philippines
AFC Challenge Cup
Opponent	Result	Qualifying round	Opponent	Result
Bangladesh	1–0	Qualifying Matchday 1	Brunei	Cancelled
Northern Mariana Islands	9–0	Qualifying Matchday 2	Cambodia	8–0
Nepal	0–0	Qualifying Matchday 3	Turkmenistan	1–0
Group D first place Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Palestine 3 2 1 0 10 0 +10 7 Bangladesh 3 2 0 1 6 1 +5 6 Nepal 3 1 1 1 6 2 +4 4 Northern Mariana Islands 3 0 0 3 0 19 −19 0 Source:		Qualifying round standings	Group E first place Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Philippines 2 2 0 0 9 0 +9 6 Turkmenistan 2 1 0 1 7 1 +6 3 Cambodia 2 0 0 2 0 15 −15 0 Source:
Opponent	Result	Group stage	Opponent	Result
Kyrgyzstan	1–0	Matchday 1	Afghanistan	0–0
Myanmar	2–0	Matchday 2	Laos	2–0
Maldives	0–0	Matchday 3	Turkmenistan	2–0
Group A first place Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Palestine 3 2 1 0 3 0 +3 7 Maldives 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1 4 Kyrgyzstan 3 1 0 2 1 3 −2 3 Myanmar 3 1 0 2 3 5 −2 3 Source:		Final standings	Group B first place Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Philippines 3 2 1 0 4 0 +4 7 Afghanistan 3 1 2 0 3 1 +2 5 Turkmenistan 3 1 0 2 6 6 0 3 Laos 3 0 1 2 1 7 −6 1 Source:
Opponent	Result	Knockout stage	Opponent	Result
Afghanistan	2–0	Semi-finals	Maldives	3–2 (aet)

Philippines

The Philippines started their campaign in the qualification stage of the tournament. All of their qualifying matches was held in Rizal Memorial Stadium, as the Philippines hosted the Group E qualifying rounds. Their first match was supposedly

Match

30 May 2014 (2014-05-30)

21:00 MVT

Palestine	1–0	Philippines
Nu'man 64'	Report

National Football Stadium, Malé

Attendance: 6,300

Referee: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)

Palestine

Philippines

GK 21 Ramzi Saleh (c) DF 2 Raed Fares DF 15 Abdallatif Albahdari DF 16 Haytham Dheeb MF 10 Imad Zaatara  90+1' MF 20 Khader Abuhammad MF 23 Murad Ismail Said FW 7 Ashraf Nu'man  90+4' FW 8 Helal Mousa  77' FW 14 Abdallh Jaber FW 19 Abdul Abuhabib  83'  86' Substitutes: GK 1 Tawfiq Abuhammad GK 4 Ghanim Mahajna DF 3 Husam Abusalah  77' DF 5 Omar Jaaron  90+1' DF 6 Mousa Abujasar  86' DF 13 Khaled Mahdi DF 18 Mus'ab Battat FW 9 Tamer Seyam FW 11 Ahmed Wridat FW 17 Rami Almasalma Head coach: Jamal Mahmoud Manager: Abdallah Alfara

GK 15 Roland Müller DF 2 Rob Gier (c) DF 3 Daisuke Sato DF 12 Amani Aguinaldo DF 23 Simone Rota  82' MF 6 Jason de Jong MF 17 Stephan Schröck  46' MF 21 Martin Steuble  90+5' MF 22 Paul Mulders  73' FW 10 Phil Younghusband FW 11 Patrick Reichelt  69' Substitutes: GK 1 Neil Etheridge GK 16 Patrick Deyto DF 4 Anton del Rosario DF 5 Juan Guirado DF 9 Kenshiro Daniels  82' MF 7 James Younghusband MF 14 Simon Greatwich MF 18 Chris Greatwich MF 19 Jerry Lucena  46' MF 20 Jose Porteria  73' FW 13 Ruben Doctora Head coach: Thomas Dooley Manager: Dan Palami

Assistant referees: Rafael Ilyasov (Uzbekistan) Lee Jung Min (South Korea) Fourth official: Ko Hyung Jin (South Korea)

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Maximum of twelve named substitutes. Maximum of three substitutions.