The 2018 Greek Cup final was the 74th final of the Greek Cup. It took place on 12 May 2018 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were AEK Athens and PAOK for a second time in row. It was AEK Athens' twenty third Greek Cup final and third consecutive, of their 94-year history and PAOK's nineteenth Greek Cup final and second consecutive, in their 92 years of existence.
Venue
This was the twenty third Greek Cup final held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, after the 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 finals.
The Athens Olympic Stadium was built in 1982 and renovated once in 2004. The stadium is used as a venue for AEK Athens and was used for Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and Greece on various occasions. Its current capacity is 69,618 and it hosted three European Cup/UEFA Champions League finals in 1983, 1994 and 2007, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1987, the 1991 Mediterranean Games and the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Background AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final twenty two times, winning fourteen of them. The last time that they had won the Cup was in 2016 (2–1 against Olympiacos). The last time that had played in a final was in 2017, where they had lost to PAOK by 2–1.
PAOK had reached the Greek Cup final eighteen times, winning five of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 2017, where they had won against AEK Athens by 2–1.
The two teams had met each other in a Cup final four times in the 1939, 1978, 1983 and 2017 finals.
Route to the final
AEK AthensRoundPAOKOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResultLamia2–0 (H)Matchday 1Levadiakos2–1 (H)Apollon Larissa 7–0 (A)Matchday 2Apollon Pontus1–0 (A)Kallithea3–2 (A)Matchday 3Aiginiakos5–0 (A)Group C winnersFinal standingsGroup B winnersOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnockout phaseOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legPanetolikos5–04–0 (A)1–0 (H)Round of 16Trikala7–25–1 (A)2–1 (H)Olympiacos2–10–0 (A)2–1 (H)Quarter-finalsAtromitos5–12–0 (H)3–1 (A)AEL2–2 (a)1–2 (A)1–0 (H)Semi-finalsPanionios6–23–1 (A)3–1 (H)
Match
Details
GK 1 Vasilis Barkas RB 2 Michalis Bakakis CB 4 Ognjen Vranješ CB 19 Dmytro Chyhrynskyi LB 23 Niklas Hult DM 8 André Simões CM 25 Konstantinos Galanopoulos RM 14 Anastasios Bakasetas LM 10 Marko Livaja AM 20 Petros Mantalos (c) CF 11 Sergio Araujo Substitutes:GK 16 Panagiotis Tsintotas DF 5 Vasilios Lampropoulos DF 12 Rodrigo Galo DF 33 Giorgos Giannoutsos FW 77 Christos Giousis FW 7 Lazaros Christodoulopoulos FW 9 Giorgos Giakoumakis Manager: Manolo Jiménez GK 31 Alexandros Paschalakis RB 3 Léo Matos CB 15 José Ángel Crespo CB 5 Fernando Varela LB 88 Vieirinha (c) DM 87 José Cañas DM 8 Maurício RM 10 Djalma Campos LM 21 Diego Biseswar AM 77 Dimitrios Pelkas CF 9 Aleksandar PrijovićSubstitutes:GK 99 Marios Siampanis DF 13 Stelios Malezas MF 28 Yevhen Shakhov MF 7 Omar El Kaddouri FW 29 Róbert Mak FW 18 Dimitrios Limnios FW 20 Efthymis Koulouris Manager: Răzvan Lucescu Man of the Match: Vieirinha (PAOK)
Assistant referees: Raúl Cabañero Martínez (Spain) José Manuel Matías Caballero (Spain) Additional assistant referees: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain) Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain) Fourth official: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Dodecanese)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Seven named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
References