The 2016 Greek Cup final was the 72nd final of the Greek Cup. It took place on 17 May 2016 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were Olympiacos and AEK Athens. It was Olympiacos' thirty ninth Greek Cup final and second consecutive, in their 91 years of existence and AEK Athens' twenty first Greek Cup final of their 92-year history. On 5 April 2016, FIFA Emergency Committee decided to provide the Greek authorities with a deadline to have the cancellation of the competition reversed before 15 April 2016 or the HFF would face an automatic suspension. The Greek authorities announced on deadline day that the Greek Football Cup will be resumed after an agreement reached with FIFA, UEFA and HFF. A new schedule with the remaining match was announced with the final being played on 7 May 2016, but the final was later postponed to 15 May 2016. It was again postponed to 17 May 2016.
Venue
This was the twenty second 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 and 2015 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 on 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 Olympiacos had reached the Greek Cup final thirty eight times, winning twenty seven of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 2015, where they had won against Skoda Xanthi by 3–1.
AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final twenty times, winning thirteen of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 2011, where they had won against Atromitos by 3–0.
The two teams had met each other in a Cup final five times in the 1953, 1956, 2002, 2006 and 2009 finals.
Route to the final
OlympiacosRoundAEK AthensOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResultPlatanias2–2 (H)Matchday 1Skoda Xanthi1–0 (A)Panegialios4–0 (A)Matchday 2Panelefsiniakos6–0 (H)Apollon Smyrnis2–1 (A)Matchday 3AEL5–0 (A)Group E winnersFinal standingsGroup G winnersOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnockout phaseOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legChania10–14–1 (A)6–0 (H)Round of 16Levadiakos3–01–0 (A)2–0 (H)Asteras Tripolis6–15–0 (A)1–1 (H)Quarter-finalsIraklis5–14–1 (H)1–0 (A)PAOK6–03–0 () (A)3–0 () (H)Semi-finalsAtromitos2–11–0 (H)1–1 (A)
Match
Details
GK 16 Roberto RB 30 Leandro Salino CB 3 Alberto Botía CB 6 Manuel da Costa LB 26 Arthur MasuakuDM 5 Luka Milivojević CM 11 Pajtim Kasami RM 19 David Fuster (c) LM 77 Hernâni AM 7 Kostas Fortounis CF 17 Alan Pulido Substitutes:GK 48 Dimitrios Katsimitros DF 23 Dimitris Siovas DF 41 Kostas TsimikasMF 91 Esteban CambiassoMF 10 Chori Domínguez FW 90 Felipe Pardo FW 99 Brown Ideye Manager: Marco Silva GK 22 Giannis AnestisRB 12 Rodrigo Galo CB 4 César Arzo CB 26 Dimitrios Kolovetsios LB 23 Dídac Vilà DM 8 André Simões CM 18 Jakob Johansson CM 20 Petros Mantalos (c) RW 21 Christos Aravidis LW 9 Ronald Vargas CF 19 Rafik Djebbour Substitutes:GK 13 Panagiotis Dounis DF 5 Vasilios Lampropoulos DF 27 Michalis Bakakis DF 55 Adam Tzanetopoulos MF 25 Konstantinos Galanopoulos MF 30 Diego Buonanotte FW 14 Tomáš Pekhart Manager: Stelios Manolas Man of the Match: Petros Mantalos (AEK Athens)
Assistant referees: Damianos Efthimiadis (Pieria) Polychronis Kostaras (Aetoloacarnania) Additional assistant referees: Michael Koukoulakis (Heraklion) Alexandros Aretopoulos (Trikala) Fourth official: Tryfon Petropoulos (Arcadia)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Seven named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
References