2018 Greek Football Cup final

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^[1] 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.

2018 Greek Cup final

Match poster
Event	2017–18 Greek Football Cup
AEK Athens PAOK 0 2
Date	12 May 2018
Venue	Olympic Stadium, Marousi, Athens
Man of the Match	Vieirinha (PAOK)
Referee	David Fernández Borbalán (Spain)
Attendance	35,545
Weather	Fair 19 °C (66 °F) 40% humidity
← 2017 2019 →

Venue

Athens Olympic Stadium.

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 in 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.^[2]

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 had played in a final was in 2017, where they had won 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.^[3]

Route to the final

Further information: 2017–18 Greek Football Cup

AEK Athens				Round	PAOK
Opponent	Result			Group stage	Opponent	Result
Lamia	2–0 (H)			Matchday 1	Levadiakos	2–1 (H)
Apollon Larissa	7–0 (A)			Matchday 2	Apollon Pontus	1–0 (A)
Kallithea	3–2 (A)			Matchday 3	Aiginiakos	5–0 (A)
Group C winners Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 6 3 Apollon Larissa 3 3 4 Kallithea 3 0 Source: epo.gr				Final standings	Group B winners Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 9 2 Levadiakos 3 6 3 Apollon Pontus 3 3 4 Aiginiakos 3 0 Source: epo.gr
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Knockout phase	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Panetolikos	5–0	4–0 (A)	1–0 (H)	Round of 16	Trikala	7–2	5–1 (A)	2–1 (H)
Olympiacos	2–1	0–0 (A)	2–1 (H)	Quarter-finals	Atromitos	5–1	2–0 (H)	3–1 (A)
AEL	2–2 (a)	1–2 (A)	1–0 (H)	Semi-finals	Panionios	6–2	3–1 (A)	3–1 (H)

Match

Details

AEK Athens	0–2	PAOK
	Report	Vieirinha 65' Pelkas 90+2'

12 May 2018

20:30 EEST

Olympic Stadium, Marousi

Attendance: 35,545

Referee: David Fernández Borbalán (Spain)

AEK Athens

PAOK

GK  1 Vasilis Barkas RB  2 Michalis Bakakis CB  4 Ognjen Vranješ  64'  80' CB 19 Dmytro Chyhrynskyi LB 23 Niklas Hult  53' DM  8 André Simões CM 25 Konstantinos Galanopoulos  90' RM 14 Anastasios Bakasetas  71'  73' LM 10 Marko Livaja  46' AM 20 Petros Mantalos (c)  67' CF 11 Sergio Araujo Substitutes: GK 16 Panagiotis Tsintotas DF  5 Vasilios Lampropoulos DF 12 Rodrigo Galo  53' DF 33 Giorgos Giannoutsos FW 77 Christos Giousis FW  7 Lazaros Christodoulopoulos  67' FW  9 Giorgos Giakoumakis  73' Manager: Manolo Jiménez

GK 31 Alexandros Paschalakis RB  3 Léo Matos  21' CB 15 José Ángel Crespo  45+1' CB  5 Fernando Varela  80'  90+4' LB 88 Vieirinha (c)  82' DM 87 José Cañas DM  8 Maurício  80' RM 10 Djalma Campos  6'  52' LM 21 Diego Biseswar  75' AM 77 Dimitris Pelkas  90+3' CF  9 Aleksandar Prijović Substitutes: GK 99 Marios Siampanis DF 13 Stelios Malezas  82' MF 28 Yevhen Shakhov  75' MF  7 Omar El Kaddouri FW 29 Róbert Mak  52' 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