# 2019 Greek Football Cup final

The 2019 Greek Cup final was the 75th final of the Greek Cup. It took place on 11 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were PAOK and AEK Athens for a third time in row. It was PAOK's twentieth Greek Cup final and third consecutive, in their 93 years of existence and AEK Athens' twenty fourth Greek Cup final and fourth consecutive, of their 95-year history. For security issues, the match occurred behind closed doors with 1,500 invitations been distributed by both clubs and the HFF. With their conquest of the Cup, PAOK achieved the first double in their history.

## Venue

This was the twenty fourth 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, 2016 and 2018 finals.
The Athens Olympic Stadium was built in 1982 and renovated once in 2004. The stadium is used as a venue for AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and Greece and was used for Olympiacos 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.

## Background

PAOK had reached the Greek Cup final nineteen times, winning six of them. The last time that had played in a final was in 2018, where they had won AEK Athens by 2–0.
AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final twenty three 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 2018, where they had lost to PAOK by 2–0.
The two teams had met each other in a Cup final five times in the 1939, 1978, 1983, 2017 and 2018 finals.

## Route to the final

| PAOK | PAOK | PAOK | PAOK | Round | AEK Athens | AEK Athens | AEK Athens | AEK Athens |
| Opponent | Result | Result | Result | Group stage | Opponent | Result | Result | Result |
| Aris | 1–1 (H) | 1–1 (H) | 1–1 (H) | Matchday 1 | Lamia | 2–1 (H) | 2–1 (H) | 2–1 (H) |
| Ergotelis | 2–1 (A) | 2–1 (A) | 2–1 (A) | Matchday 2 | Apollon Larissa | 4–0 (A) | 4–0 (A) | 4–0 (A) |
| Aittitos Spata | 6–0 (A) | 6–0 (A) | 6–0 (A) | Matchday 3 | Volos | 3–1 (A) | 3–1 (A) | 3–1 (A) |
| Group D winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 7 2 Ergotelis 3 4 3 Aris 3 4 4 Aittitos Spata 3 1 Source: epo.gr | Group D winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 7 2 Ergotelis 3 4 3 Aris 3 4 4 Aittitos Spata 3 1 Source: epo.gr | Group D winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 7 2 Ergotelis 3 4 3 Aris 3 4 4 Aittitos Spata 3 1 Source: epo.gr | Group D winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 7 2 Ergotelis 3 4 3 Aris 3 4 4 Aittitos Spata 3 1 Source: epo.gr | Final standings | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 4 3 Volos 3 4 4 Apollon Larissa 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 4 3 Volos 3 4 4 Apollon Larissa 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 4 3 Volos 3 4 4 Apollon Larissa 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 4 3 Volos 3 4 4 Apollon Larissa 3 0 Source: epo.gr |
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Knockout phase | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Panachaiki | 6–2 | 1–2 (A) | 5–0 (H) | Round of 16 | AO Chania−Kissamikos | 6–1 | 1–1 (A) | 5–0 (H) |
| Panionios | 5–4 | 1–2 (A) | 4–2 (a.e.t.) (H) | Quarter-finals | Atromitos | 4–0 | 1–0 (A) | 3–0 (H) |
| Asteras Tripolis | 2–0 | 2–0 (H) | 0–0 (A) | Semi-finals | Lamia | 6–0 | 2–0 (H) | 4–0 (A) |

## Match
### Details

| PAOK | AEK Athens |
| GK | 31 | Alexandros Paschalakis |
| RB | 3 | Léo Matos |
| CB | 15 | José Ángel Crespo |
| CB | 5 | Fernando Varela |
| LB | 23 | Dimitris Giannoulis |
| DM | 87 | José Cañas |
| CM | 28 | Yevhen Shakhov |
| RM | 98 | Léo Jabá | | 66' |
| LM | 21 | Diego Biseswar | | 90+3' |
| AM | 10 | Dimitris Pelkas (c) | | 80' |
| CF | 47 | Chuba Akpom | 38' |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 60 | Symeon Papadopoulos |
| DF | 4 | Sverrir Ingi Ingason | | 90+3' |
| DF | 32 | Lefteris Lyratzis |
| MF | 26 | Sérgio Oliveira | | 80' |
| FW | 18 | Dimitris Limnios | | 66' |
| FW | 90 | Pedro Henrique |
| FW | 9 | Karol Świderski |
| Manager: ||
| Răzvan Lucescu ||
| GK | 1 | Vasilis Barkas |
| RB | 2 | Michalis Bakakis | | 80' |
| CB | 4 | Marios Oikonomou | 26' |
| CB | 19 | Dmytro Chyhrynskyi |
| LB | 23 | Niklas Hult |
| DM | 8 | André Simões |
| CM | 6 | Nenad Krstičić | 43' | 76' |
| RM | 14 | Anastasios Bakasetas | | 71' |
| LM | 20 | Petros Mantalos (c) |
| SS | 10 | Marko Livaja | 28' |
| CF | 22 | Ezequiel Ponce | 67' |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 16 | Panagiotis Tsintotas |
| DF | 12 | Rodrigo Galo | 90+6' | 71' |
| DF | 24 | Stratos Svarnas |
| DF | 50 | Michalis Bousis |
| MF | 25 | Konstantinos Galanopoulos | | 80' |
| FW | 77 | Christos Giousis |
| FW | 31 | Lucas Boyé | | 76' |
| Manager: ||
| Manolo Jiménez ||
| Man of the Match: Chuba Akpom (PAOK) Assistant referees: Mark Borsch (Germany) Marco Achmüller (Germany) Fourth official: Thorsten Schiffner (Germany) Video assistant referee: Sascha Stegemann (Germany) Assistant video assistant referee: Sven Jablonski (Germany) | Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Seven named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions |