It can be said that Qatar "won" the penultimate place in the 2022 World Cup, which is definitely a dimensionality reduction blow from the World Cup to the Asian Cup, because Qatar also has an identity - the champion of the 2019 Asian Cup. In the 2022 World Cup, Qatar's lineup has not changed much compared with 2019, so it is embarrassing. After all, in the 2019 Asian Cup, many of these teams were defeated by Qatar. For example, Japan, which shined in the 2022 World Cup, lost 1:3 to Qatar in the final of the 2019 Asian Cup.
But the most embarrassing thing is the deity Qatar, after all, in the 2022 World Cup, they still have an identity - the host. Prior to 2022, the worst World Cup host was South Africa. However, South Africa still had at least four points that year, and although they failed to qualify from the group, they were at least honorably defeated. In contrast, Qatar's record of three consecutive defeats is indeed a bit embarrassing.
The Asian Cup is just around the corner, and this time Qatar is still the host. Ironically, in the World Cup, Qatar is recognized as the belly of the fish, and in the Asian Cup, they are not only the defending champions, but also a strong team. Since the topic comes to the Asian Cup, let's combine the experience of Qatar and throw out a question - the worst host in the history of the World Cup is Qatar, so who is the host with the worst performance in the history of the Asian Cup?
The history of the Asian Cup is not short, four years before the European Cup. The early Asian Cup was also not large, with only 4 or 6 teams. Later, it gradually increased to 16 teams, 24 teams, like the European Cup. For Asian football, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia are like Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina in world football, obviously, today's topic cannot be related to them. In the Asian map, the strength is in the lower reaches, which is Southeast Asia.
So, this team, almost certainly, is from Southeast Asia.
The first Southeast Asian country to host the Asian Cup was Thailand. In the 1972 Asian Cup, a total of 6 teams participated, and Thailand won the third, which is reasonable to say. Next up is Singapore in 1984. Singapore's results were far worse than Thailand's, with 10 teams in two groups, with Singapore finishing second from bottom in Group B. In terms of overall results, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses, they are in the bottom four. For a Southeast Asian team, such a result is actually not too bad.
In fact, when it comes to this issue, the first thing that comes to mind is the 2007 Asian Cup. Because this Asian Cup is jointly hosted by 4 Southeast Asian teams, there is a high probability that there will be the team with the worst results.
Malaysia, this is the team.
Of the four hosts at that time, only Vietnam advanced to the group, while Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia were eliminated in the group stage. But the three teams also have their own points, with Thailand taking four points and almost qualifying, while Indonesia won at least one game and left with their heads held high. Only Malaysia ended in three consecutive defeats. Although with their strength at that time, it was true that they could only fight like this. But it's a bit of a stretch to get the first place from the bottom at home.
Malaysia in the history of the Asian Cup is like Qatar in the history of the World Cup. Like Qatar, which has lost three consecutive times in the World Cup, Malaysia can only show such a performance in the Asian Cup.
It is worth mentioning that in the group stage of the 2007 Asian Cup, Malaysia lost to the Chinese team 1:5 at home. At that time, the strength of the national football team could be regarded as second-rate in Asia. But now, we can't even beat Malaysia.