The 2000 Greek Cup final was the 56th final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 10 May 2000 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were AEK Athens and Ionikos. It was AEK Athens' sixteenth Greek Cup final in their 76 years of existence and Ionikos' first-ever Greek Cup final of their 35-year history. A remarkable moment of the match was at 32nd minute while the score was 0–0, AEK Athens took the lead with Demis Nikolaidis scoring with his hand. The referee did not realize the violation and ran towards the center of the pitch, but the player approached him and told him that he should not count the goal, explaining what exactly had happened. As a result, the goal was canceled and Nikolaidis was shown a yellow card for handball. Nikolaidis was later honored for his fair play by the International Olympic Committee.
Venue
This was the fourteenth Greek Cup final held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, after the 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999 finals.
The Athens Olympic Stadium was built in 1982. The stadium is used as a venue for Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and Greece and was used for AEK Athens on various occasions. Its current capacity is 80,000 and hosted two European Cup/UEFA Champions League finals in 1983 and 1994, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1987 and the 1991 Mediterranean Games.
Background AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final fifteen times, winning nine of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 1997, where they had won against Panathinaikos by 5–3 on a penalty shootout, which came after a 0–0 draw at the end of the extra time.
Ionikos had never competed in a Cup final.
The two teams had never met each other in a Cup final.
Route to the final
AEK AthensRoundIonikosOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResultEgaleo6–1 (H)Matchday 1Panetolikos3–0 (H)A.O. Karditsa6–1 (A)Matchday 2Leonidio2–1 (A)Trikala2–1 (A)Matchday 3Panathinaikos1–0 (A)Athinaikos3–0 (H)Matchday 4Ialysos6–0 (H)Akratitos3–0 (H)Matchday 5Keratsini3–2 (H)Group 8 winnersFinal standingsGroup 1 runners-upOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnockout phaseOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd leg ByeAdditional roundMarko 4–1 (H)Trikala 6–0 (H)Round of 16Iraklis 4–2 (H)Olympiacos4–11–1 (A)3–0 (H)Quarter-finalsNafpaktiakos Asteras9–28–0 (H)1–2 (A)Panionios5–34–1 (H)1–2 (A)Semi-finalsKalamata6–22–0 (A)4–2 (H)
Match Details
GK 1 Ilias Atmatsidis (c)CB 2 Traianos DellasCB 32 Michalis KapsisCB 25 Giannis Kalitzakis DM 14 Akis Zikos CM 28 Milen PetkovRM 23 Vasilios LakisLM 17 Michalis KasapisAM 10 Dragan Ćirić SS 20 Sotiris Konstantinidis CF 11 Demis Nikolaidis Substitutes:GK 15 Chrisostomos Michailidis DF 12 Charis Kopitsis DF 21 Vaios Karagiannis MF 6 Dimitris Markos MF 7 Christos Maladenis MF 8 Toni Savevski MF 18 Evripidis KatsavosManager: Giannis Pathiakakis GK 15 Foto StrakoshaRB 3 Theodoros Pachatouridis CB 2 Trond Inge Haugland CB 5 Giannis Xanthopoulos (c) LB 7 Georgios DaraklitsasDM 21 Dimitris DeligiannisCM 8 Mohammad Nasser Afash CM 17 Sokratis Ofrydopoulos AM 10 Paulinho Kobayashi CF 9 Craig BrewsterCF 23 Zizi RobertsSubstitutes:GK 32 Chrysostomos VeniaminDF 12 Apostolos TsoptsisDF 14 Giannis Gyrichidis MF 16 Giorgos StaboulisMF 20 Martín Rodríguez MF 37 Marcelo Leopaldi FW 29 Darío Muchotrigo Manager: Oleg Blokhin Man of the Match: Demis Nikolaidis (AEK Athens)
Assistant referees: Dimitris Groutsis (Corinthia) Apostolos Kourkounas (Chania)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Seven named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
See also 1999–2000 Greek Football Cup
References