Catawba – Rhododendron catawbiense

The 2023 SAFF Women's International Friendly Tournament was the 2nd edition of the SAFF Women's International Friendly Tournament organized by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF). Taif was selected as the host city by the SAFF Women's Football Committee in September 2023. On 21 August 2023, the SAFF confirmed that the tournament would take place between 18 and 30 September 2023.^[1]

The competition saw an expansion of participating teams from four in the first edition to six in this edition.^[2]

Saudi Arabia were the defending champions having won last edition in Khobar, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Bhutan after extra time.^[3] Lebanon were crowned champions for the first time after defeating Bhutan 1–0, also after extra time.^[4]

The second SAFF Women's International Friendly Tournament featured teams from six different nations, representing three Asian regional sub-confederations: WAFF (West Asia), SAFF (South Asia), and AFF (ASEAN).^[5]

The following six teams participated in the tournament:

Team	Appearance	Last appearance	FIFA Ranking[a]	Previous best performance
Saudi Arabia	2nd	2023 (Khobar)	172th	Champions (2023 (Khobar))
Bhutan	1st	N/A	169th	Debut
Laos	1st	N/A	87th	Debut
Lebanon	1st	N/A	137th	Debut
Malaysia	1st	N/A	89th	Debut
Pakistan[6]	2nd	2023 (Khobar)	157th	Runners-up (2023 (Khobar))

All the matches of the tournament are being held exclusively at the King Fahd Stadium in Taif.^[7]

Taif	Taif
	King Fahd Sports City
	Capacity: 20,000

The tournament follows a group-stage format, where the six competing teams were drawn into two groups of three. The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, the third-placed teams from both groups play in a match to determine the 5th place. The winners of the semi-finals secure a spot in the final, while the defeated teams face off for third place.^[8]

All times are local, SAST (UTC+03:00).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia (H)	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4	Knockout stage
2	Malaysia	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
3	Pakistan	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Lebanon	2	2	0	0	7	3	+4	6	Knockout stage
2	Bhutan	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1	1
3	Laos	2	0	1	1	1	4	−3	1

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	5th place
	28 September – Taif
	Pakistan	1 (4)
	Laos	1 (2)

• In the knockout stage, extra-time and a penalty shoot-out will be used to decide the winner if necessary.

	Semi-finals				Final
	27 September – Taif
	Saudi Arabia	0
					30 September – Taif
	Bhutan (a.e.t.)	1
					Bhutan	0
	27 September – Taif
					Lebanon (a.e.t.)	1
	Lebanon (p)	0 (4)
	Malaysia	0 (3)
					Third Place match
					30 September – Taif
					Saudi Arabia	0
					Malaysia	1

There were 16 goals scored in 11 matches, for an average of 1.45 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal