# 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 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 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

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.

## Route to the final

| AEK Athens | AEK Athens | AEK Athens | AEK Athens | Round | PAOK | PAOK | PAOK | PAOK |
| Opponent | Result | Result | Result | Group stage | Opponent | Result | Result | Result |
| Lamia | 2–0 (H) | 2–0 (H) | 2–0 (H) | Matchday 1 | Levadiakos | 2–1 (H) | 2–1 (H) | 2–1 (H) |
| Apollon Larissa | 7–0 (A) | 7–0 (A) | 7–0 (A) | Matchday 2 | Apollon Pontus | 1–0 (A) | 1–0 (A) | 1–0 (A) |
| Kallithea | 3–2 (A) | 3–2 (A) | 3–2 (A) | Matchday 3 | Aiginiakos | 5–0 (A) | 5–0 (A) | 5–0 (A) |
| Group C winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 6 3 Apollon Larissa 3 3 4 Kallithea 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group C winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 6 3 Apollon Larissa 3 3 4 Kallithea 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group C winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 AEK Athens 3 9 2 Lamia 3 6 3 Apollon Larissa 3 3 4 Kallithea 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group C winners Pos Teamvte 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 Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 9 2 Levadiakos 3 6 3 Apollon Pontus 3 3 4 Aiginiakos 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 9 2 Levadiakos 3 6 3 Apollon Pontus 3 3 4 Aiginiakos 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 PAOK 3 9 2 Levadiakos 3 6 3 Apollon Pontus 3 3 4 Aiginiakos 3 0 Source: epo.gr | Group B winners Pos Teamvte 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 | 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 |