Totally 72 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki, 18 from Beta, and 36 from Gamma. It was held in 6 rounds, included final.
It was a very interesting competition with undecided matches and led in a final between Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, a pair that had not appeared in a Greek Cup final for 45 years, since the last confrontation between the two teams in the final match was in 1949. AEK Athens qualified in the final after 11 years, while Panathinaikos had eliminated PAOK earlier in penalty shoot-out, after two goalless draws.
The final match was the one of two more shocking finals in history of Greek Cup,[1] after 1976. Panathinaikos preceded 2–0 and appeared to win, however, in a few minutes to its end, AEK Athens managed to tie the game, to take the lead in the start of extra time only to be drawn and eventually to lose the title in the penalty shoot-out. At the same time, they lost the chance to win the double, since the same year they won the championship.
Remarkable in the competition was also the bombardment of goals, almost in all phases and mainly in second legs. Characteristically, in second matches of second round, 16 in the number, were marked 64 goals, mean 4 goals per match, and in corresponding of third round 30 goals in 8 matches.
Also, it is remarkable that in unique two from 16 groups that included two Alpha Ethniki teams, it happened to be drawn opponents Olympiacos and Iraklis in Group 16, that later balloted again in quarter-finals, but also AEK Athens and Panathinaikos in Group 14, that is to say the pair of the final.[2]
Each tie in the knockout phase, apart from the final, was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e. if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the final, which were played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
There are no seedings, and teams from the same group can be drawn against each other.
Greece
