1996–97 Greek Football Cup

The 1996–97 Greek Football Cup was the 55th edition of the Greek Football Cup.

1996–97 Greek Cup

Tournament details
Country	Greece
Teams	72
Defending champions	AEK Athens
Final positions
Champions	AEK Athens (11th title)
Runners-up	Panathinaikos
Tournament statistics
Matches played	141
Top goal scorer(s)	Alexis Alexandris (7 goals)
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

Tournament details

Totally 72 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki, 18 from Beta, and 36 from Gamma. It was held in 7 rounds, included final. After 8 years the group stage was suppressed, while the teams of Alpha Ethniki would enter in the competition at the round of 32.

The round of 16 was very interesting, as Olympiacos eliminated PAOK and Panathinaikos eliminated Iraklis. Also, Ionikos tipped OFI with 7 goals. For third time in the 4 last years AEK Athens and Panathinaikos were pondered over in the final, held in Karaiskakis Stadium. AEK Athens won on the penalty shoot-out.^[1][2]

The loss of Cup for Panathinaikos, in combination with their mediocre course in the championship, meant the unique time at the last 25 years that the club did not participate in any European competition.

Calendar

Round	Date(s)	Fixtures	Clubs	New entries	Leagues entering
First Round	18, 25 August 1996	54	72 → 45	54	Beta Ethniki & Gamma Ethniki
Second Round	4, 5, 25 September & 9 October 1996	26	45 → 32	none	none
Round of 32	2, 3, 23 October & 13, 14 November 1996	32	32 → 16	18	Alpha Ethniki
Round of 16	27, 28 November & 11, 12 December 1996	16	16 → 8	none	none
Quarter-finals	8, 29 January 1997	8	8 → 4
Semi-finals	12, 26 February 1997	4	4 → 2
Final	16 April 1997	1	2 → 1

Knockout phase

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.

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Atromitos	0–4	Anagennisi Karditsa	0–3	0–1
Varvasiakos	1–2	Agios Nikolaos	1–1	0–1
Tyrnavos	0–1	Doxa Drama	0–1	0–0
Proodeftiki	0–1	Panegialios	0–0	0–1
Ilisiakos	5–3	Anagennisi Kolindros	4–2	1–1
Trikala	1–1 (a)	Naoussa	1–1	0–0
Orestis Orestiada	2–5	Panionios	1–1	1–4
Niki Volos	1–3	Doxa Vyronas	1–1	0–2
AEL	6–2	Poseidon Michaniona	2–0	4–2
Ethnikos Asteras	2–1	Aetos Skydra	1–0	1–1
Egaleo	4–6	Iraklis Ptolemaida	1–1	3–5
Kallithea	1–0	Apollon Kalamarias	0–0	1–0
Lamia	3–4	Ergotelis	0–1	3–3
Korinthos	1–5	Nafpaktiakos Asteras	0–1	1–4
Panetolikos	5–1	Marko	1–0	4–1
Nigrita	1–6	AO Pyrgos	1–1	0–5
Almopos Aridea	0–2	ILTEX Lykoi	0–0	0–2
Ethnikos Piraeus	(a) 4–4	PAS Giannina	2–1	2–3
A.F.C. Patra	3–5	EAR	1–0	2–5
Anagennisi Arta	6–2	Irodotos	4–1	2–1
Panserraikos	3–1	Panargiakos	3–1	0–0
Aiolikos	1–1 (a)	Levadiakos	1–1	0–0
Apollon Larissa	0–3	Panelefsiniakos	0–0	0–3
Agrotikos Asteras	0–2	Ambelokipoi Thessaloniki	0–1	0–1
Kerkyra	3–3 (a)	Ialysos	3–1	0–2
Pierikos	2–1	Anagennisi Giannitsa	0–0	2–1
Olympiacos Volos	2–1	Diagoras – Rodos Enosis	2–0	0–1

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
AEL	0–0 (3–5 p)	Kallithea	0–0	0–0 (a.e.t.)
Panelefsiniakos	1–0	Doxa Vyronas	1–0	0–0
Panionios	5–0	EAR	2–0	3–0
Panetolikos	0–1	Ethnikos Piraeus	0–0	0–1 (a.e.t.)
Ambelokipoi Thessaloniki	2–2 (a)	Panserraikos	2–1	0–1
Naoussa	4–1	Pierikos	2–0	2–1
Pyrgos	2–0	Agios Nikolaos	2–0	0–0
Ilisiakos	4–5	Ialysos	2–2	2–3
ILTEX Lykoi	4–0	Anagennisi Karditsa	3–0	1–0
Olympiacos Volos	3–2	Anagennisi Arta	2–0	1–2
Doxa Drama	2–6	Ethnikos Asteras	1–2	1–4
Iraklis Ptolemaida	1–5	Levadiakos	1–0	0–5
Ergotelis	2–4	Panegialios	1–0	1–4 (a.e.t.)
Nafpaktiakos Asteras	bye

Bracket

	Round of 32						Round of 16						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	AEK Athens	5	3	8
	Skoda Xanthi	0	3	3			AEK Athens	3	3	6
	Nafpaktiakos Asteras	1	2	3			ILTEX Lykoi	1	0	1
	ILTEX Lykoi	1	3	4									AEK Athens	3	2	5
	Kastoria	1	1	2									Paniliakos	1	0	1
	Ethnikos Asteras	0	4	4			Ethnikos Asteras	0	2	2
	Paniliakos	4	2	6			Paniliakos	5	3	8
	Panegialios	0	1	1															AEK Athens	2	1	3
	Veria	4	1	5															Olympiacos	1	0	1
	Kavala	0	1	1			Veria	1	0	1
	Apollon Athens	3	1	4			Apollon Athens	0	2	2
	Edessaikos	1	0	1									Apollon Athens	1	0	1
	PAOK	4	3	7									Olympiacos	1	1	2
	Panionios	0	2	2			PAOK	1	1	2
	Olympiacos	4	3	7			Olympiacos	2	2	4
	Kalamata	1	1	2																					AEK Athens (p)	0(5)
	AO Pyrgos	0	0	0																					Panathinaikos	0(3)
	Iraklis	0	4	4			Iraklis	0	0	0
	Panathinaikos	3	3	6			Panathinaikos	1	3	4
	Athinaikos	0	0	0									Panathinaikos	2	1	3
	Ialysos	1	2	3									Ialysos	0	1	1
	Levadiakos	0	1	1			Ialysos	4	2	6
	Ethnikos Piraeus (p)	0	1	1(2)			Ethnikos Piraeus	1	2	3
	Kallithea	1	0	1(0)															Panathinaikos	3	4	7
	Naoussa	1	1	2															Panachaiki	0	0	0
	Ionikos	2	3	5			Ionikos	7	0	7
	Panserraikos	2	0	2			OFI	2	2	4
	OFI	3	6	9									Ionikos	3	0	3
	Aris	2	1	3									Panachaiki (a)	1	2	3
	Panelefsiniakos	1	0	1			Aris	1	0	1
	Olympiacos Volos	0	2	2			Panachaiki	2	2	4
	Panachaiki	2	2	4

Round of 32

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
AO Pyrgos	0–4	Iraklis	0–0	0–4
Olympiacos	7–2	Kalamata	4–1	3–1
AEK Athens	8–3	Skoda Xanthi	5–0	3–3
Nafpaktiakos Asteras	3–4	ILTEX Lykoi	1–1	2–3
Apollon Athens	4–1	Edessaikos	3–1	1–0
Naoussa	2–5	Ionikos	1–2	1–3
Paniliakos	6–1	Panegialios	4–0	2–1
PAOK	7–2	Panionios	4–0	3–2
Kastoria	2–4	Ethnikos Asteras	1–0	1–4
Panathinaikos	6–0	Athinaikos	3–0	3–0
Panserraikos	2–9	OFI	2–3	0–6
Ialysos	3–1	Levadiakos	1–0	2–1
Veria	5–1	Kavala	4–0	1–1
Aris	3–1	Panelefsiniakos	2–1	1–0
Olympiacos Volos	2–4	Panachaiki	0–2	2–2
Ethnikos Piraeus	1–1 (2–0 p)	Kallithea	0–1	1–0 (a.e.t.)

Round of 16

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ionikos	7–4	OFI	7–2	0–2
Aris	1–4	Panachaiki	1–2	0–2
Veria	1–2	Apollon Athens	1–0	0–2
Iraklis	0–4	Panathinaikos	0–1	0–3
Ialysos	6–3	Ethnikos Piraeus	4–1	2–2
AEK Athens	6–1	ILTEX Lykoi	3–1	3–0
PAOK	2–4	Olympiacos	1–2	1–2
Ethnikos Asteras	2–8	Paniliakos	0–5	2–3

Matches

27 November 1996

14:45 EET

Ionikos	7–2	OFI
Kiassos 16' (o.g.) Tsiantakis 27' Staboulis 39' Ottiji 42', 53', 54' Frousos 89'		Kiassos 22' Moutas 82'

Neapoli Stadium, Piraeus

Referee: Thanasis Zachariadis (Thessaloniki)

11 December 1996

17:00 EET

OFI	2–0	Ionikos
Mitić 4' Riznić 90'

Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Heraklion

Referee: Naoum Mintiouris (Serres)

Ionikos won 7–4 on aggregate.

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28 November 1996

18:00 EET

Aris	1–2	Panachaiki
Mitsopoulos 17'		Vaitsis 19' Androutsos 89'

Aris Stadium, Thessaloniki

Referee: Manolis Giannadakis (Lasithi)

11 December 1996

14:15 EET

Panachaiki	2–0	Aris
Palapanis 39' Vaitsis 41'

Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patras

Attendance: 623

Referee: Michalis Kalathenos (Dodecanese)

Panachaiki won 4–1 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

14:45 EET

Veria	1–0	Apollon Athens
Tsalouchidis 74'

Veria Stadium, Veria

Referee: Nikos Angelakis (Thessaloniki)

11 December 1996

14:15 EET

Apollon Athens	2–0	Veria
Dikoumé 5' Kefalas 77'

Rizoupoli Stadium, Rizoupoli

Referee: Argyris Papachintzios (Thessaloniki)

Apollon Athens won 2–1 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

19:00 EET

Iraklis	0–1	Panathinaikos
		Borrelli 66'

Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki

Attendance: 700

Referee: Dionysis Stefanopoulos (Piraeus)

11 December 1996

16:15 EET

Panathinaikos	3–0	Iraklis
Liberopoulos 15', 29', 87'

Olympic Stadium, Marousi

Attendance: 526

Referee: Giorgos Borovilos (Arcadia)

Panathinaikos won 4–0 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

13:00 EET

Ialysos	4–1	Ethnikos Piraeus
Kormaris 23' Tahiri 31' Kalimeris 65' Raios 70'		Kontis 4'

Municipal Stadium Ekonomideio, Ialysos

Referee: Poungakiotis (Phthiotis)

12 December 1996

13:00 EET

Ethnikos Piraeus	2–2	Ialysos
Athanasiadis 44' Petkovski 58'		Tahiri 88' (pen.) Kypriotis 89'

Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus

Referee: Doulis

Ialysos won 6–3 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

14:45 EET

AEK Athens	3–1	ILTEX Lykoi
Manolas 59' Dimitriadis 70' Nikolaidis 73'		Dotsis 15'

Nikos Goumas Stadium, Nea Filadelfeia

Attendance: 329

Referee: Dimitris Begos (Argolida)

11 December 1996

14:15 EET

ILTEX Lykoi	0–3	AEK Athens
		Kasapis 23' Dimitriadis 52' Kostis 72'

Lykoi Stadium, Thessaloniki

Referee: Giorgos Bikas (Chalkidiki)

AEK Athens won 6–1 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

19:30 EET

PAOK	1–2	Olympiacos
Zouboulis 19'		Alexandris 52' Đorđević 73' (pen.)

Toumba Stadium, Thessaloniki

Attendance: 20,498

Referee: Georgios Psychomanis (Athens)

11 December 1996

18:15 EET

Olympiacos	2–1	PAOK
Alexandris 40', 59'		Tasiopoulos 41'

Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus

Attendance: 4,503

Referee: Sotiris Vorgias (Athens)

Olympiacos won 4–2 on aggregate.

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27 November 1996

13:00 EET

Ethnikos Asteras	0–5	Paniliakos
		Tsekos 55', 89' Barnjak 58' Ilić 64' Faltsetas 87' (o.g.)

Michalis Kritikopoulos Stadium, Kaisariani

Referee: Karaferias (Larissa)

11 December 1996

13:00 EET

Paniliakos	3–2	Ethnikos Asteras
Armylagos 43' Pappas 72' Gitsis 78'		Pavlopoulos 17', 63'

Pyrgos Stadium, Pyrgos

Referee: Malamas Tevekelis (Thessaloniki)

Paniliakos won 8–2 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ionikos	3–3 (a)	Panachaiki	3–1	0–2
Apollon Athens	1–2	Olympiacos	1–1	0–1
Panathinaikos	3–1	Ialysos	2–0	1–1
AEK Athens	5–1	Paniliakos	3–1	2–0

Matches

8 January 1997

14:45 EET

Ionikos	3–1	Panachaiki
Tsiantakis 7', 77' Andrioli 33'	Report (page 5)	Roussos 23'

Neapoli Stadium, Piraeus

29 January 1997

14:30 EET

Panachaiki	2–0	Ionikos
Palapanis 21' Klejch 63'	Report (page 5)

Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patras

Panachaiki won away goals.

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8 January 1997

15:15 EET

Apollon Athens	1–1	Olympiacos
Alexis 19'	Report (page 5)	Alexandris 59'

Rizoupoli Stadium, Rizoupoli

Attendance: 1,056

Referee: Giorgos Bikas (Chalkidiki)

29 January 1997

18:15 EET

Olympiacos	1–0	Apollon Athens
Alexandris 28'	Report (page 5)

Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus

Attendance: 3,785

Referee: Michalis Kalathenos (Dodecanese)

Olympiacos won 2–1 on aggregate.

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8 January 1997

13:00 EET

Panathinaikos	2–0	Ialysos
Alexoudis 18' Warzycha 56'	Report (page 5)

Olympic Stadium, Marousi

Attendance: 267

29 January 1997

13:00 EET

Ialysos	1–1	Panathinaikos
Polja 17'	Report (page 5)	Warzycha 66'

Municipal Stadium Ekonomideio, Ialysos

Attendance: 2,553

Panathinaikos won 3–1 on aggregate.

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8 January 1997

18:15 EET

AEK Athens	3–1	Paniliakos
Batista 23' Vlachos 63' Marcelo 66'	Report (page 5)	Kyzeridis 15'

Nikos Goumas Stadium, Nea Filadelfeia

Attendance: 1,311

Referee: Giorgos Borovilos (Arcadia)

29 January 1997

15:15 EET (UTC+2)

Paniliakos	0–2	AEK Athens
	Report	Ketsbaia 6', 26' (pen.)

Pyrgos Stadium, Pyrgos

Referee: Giorgos Douros (Corinthia)

AEK Athens won 5–1 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
AEK Athens	3–1	Olympiacos	2–1	1–0
Panathinaikos	7–0	Panachaiki	3–0	4–0

Matches

12 February 1997

20:30 EET

AEK Athens	2–1	Olympiacos
Batista 46' Kopitsis 73'	Report (page 6)	Alexandris 90+2'

Nikos Goumas Stadium, Nea Filadelfeia

Attendance: 24,450

Referee: Spyros Papadakos (Laconia)

26 February 1997

20:30 EET

Olympiacos	0–1	AEK Athens
	Report (page 7)	Nikolaidis 46'

Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus

Attendance: 25,955

Referee: Manolis Papatriantafyllou (Kilkis)

AEK Athens won 3–1 on aggregate.

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12 February 1997

16:30 EET

Panathinaikos	3–0	Panachaiki
Alexopoulos 11' Kalla 30' (o.g.) Warzycha 53'	Report (page 5)

Olympic Stadium, Marousi

Attendance: 4,374

Referee: Manolis Giannadakis (Lasithi)

26 February 1997

15:15 EET

Panachaiki	0–4	Panathinaikos
	Report (page 6)	Nasiopoulos 1' Goumas 30' Liberopoulos 69' Syrigos 79' (o.g.)

Pampeloponnisiako Stadium, Patras

Attendance: 1,830

Referee: Thanasis Zachariadis (Thessaloniki)

Panathinaikos won 7–0 on aggregate.

Final

Main article: 1997 Greek Football Cup final

16 April 1997

20:15 EEST

AEK Athens	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Panathinaikos
	Report
Penalties
Kopitsis Borbokis Nikolaidis Doboş Atmatsidis	5–3	Warzycha Konstantinidis Georgiadis Markos

Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus

Attendance: 21,926

Referee: Giorgos Psychomanis (Athens)