Soccer-Lebanon at the Asian Cup
Dec 29 (Reuters) - Factbox on Lebanon ahead of the Asian Cup, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates from Jan 5 to Feb 1: FIFA world ranking: 81 Ranking in Asia: 9 Previous Asian Cups: 1 Best performance: Group stage (2000) Nickname: The Cedars Coach: Miodrag Radulovic Regular captain: Hassan Maatouk Player to watch: Hassan Maatouk Recent form: Sept 6 Jordan 0-1 Lebanon Amman Sept 9 Lebanon 0-0 Oman Amman Oct 11 Kuwait 1-0 Lebanon Kuwait City Nov 15 Uzbekistan 0-0 Lebanon Gdansk Nov 20 Australia 3-0 Lebanon Sydney Dec 27 Bahrain 1-0 Lebanon Manama Fixtures: Group E Jan 9 Qatar v Lebanon Al Ain Jan 12 Lebanon v Saudi Arabia Dubai Jan 17 Lebanon v North Korea Sharjah Lebanon return to the finals for the first time since hosting the tournament in 2000 as the west Asian nation successfully navigated their way through qualifying for the first time. The Lebanese face a major challenge to advance to the next phase but have pulled off surprise results before, defeating South Korea on their way to the final phase of Asia's qualifying tournament for the 2014 World Cup. (Compiled by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)
