I monitored the Group Stage of the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar in 2011.
My data are here.
At that time I used the FIFA Rankings to monitor the progress of the participating teams.
This year I am using Elo Ratings.
In 2015, seven of the eight games played in Round 1 of the Group games were won by higher Elo rated teams. The exception was Jordan’s defeat by Iraq.
Australia and the UAE went 1v0 down against their lower rated opponents (Kuwait and Qatar respectively) but won their games.
Korea Republic, Uzbekistan, China, Iran and Japan have all won their games scoring first.
Jordan lost 0v1 against Iraq who started the Tournament three Elo rating places below Jordan (separated by 11 points).
