The 1996 Greek Cup final was the 52nd final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 15 May 1996 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were Apollon Athens and AEK Athens. It was Apollon Athens' first-ever Greek Cup final in their 105 years of existence and AEK Athens' fourtheenth Greek Cup final and third consecutive in their 72-year history. Demis Nikolaidis played his last match as footballer of Apollon Athens, a few days before his transfer to AEK Athens. With their 7–1 win over Apollon Athens, AEK Athens achieved a record victory in the history of the Greek Cup finals. Furthermore, it proved to be the only Cup title, as well as the last trophy won by Dušan Bajević as the manager of AEK Athens.
Venue
This was the twelfth Greek Cup final held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, after the 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1995 finals.
The Athens Olympic Stadium was built in 1982. The stadium is used as a venue for Panathinaikos and Greece and was used for Olympiacos and 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 Apollon Athens had never competed in a Cup final.
AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final thirteen times, winning eight of them. The last time that they had won the Cup was in 1983 (2–0 against PAOK). The last time that they had played in a final was in 1995, where they had lost to Panathinaikos by 1–0 after the extra time.
The two teams had never met each other in a Cup final.
Route to the final
Apollon AthensRoundAEK AthensOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResultPanelfsiniakosUnknownMatchday 1Almopos Aridea6–2 (H)AtromitosUnknownMatchday 2Olympiacos Volos2–0 (A)KalamataUnknownMatchday 3Panegialios4–1 (H)Ambelokipoi ThessalonikiUnknownMatchday 4Panathinaikos1–3 (A)Group 3 winners TeamPts Apollon Athens12 Panelfsiniakos5 Atromitos4 Kalamata4 Ambelokipoi Thessaloniki2Final standingsGroup 1 runners-up TeamPts Panathinaikos12 AEK Athens9 Panegialios6 Olympiacos Volos1 Almopos Aridea1OpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnockout phaseOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legPaniliakos5–42–1 (H)3–3 (A)Round of 32Iraklis3–01–0 (H)2–0 (A)Panetolikos4–32–1 (A)2–2 (H)Round of 16Olympiacos4–13–1 (A)1–1 (H)Skoda Xanthi5–24–0 (H)1–2 (A)Quarter-finalsPanathinaikos5–43–1 (H)2–2 (A)PAOK4–21–1 (H)3–1 (A)Semi-finalsAthinaikos6–05–0 (H)1–0 (A)
Match Details
GK 1 Dimitris RaptisRB 7 Predrag Erak CB 3 Kostas Mavridis CB 4 Andreas Theodoropoulos LB 5 Giannis Apostolou DM 2 Konstantinos IoannouCM 10 Bledar KolaRM 6 Giannis TatsisLM 8 Lefteris Velentzas (c)CF 9 Bernard BarnjakCF 11 Demis NikolaidisSubstitutes:DF 12 Panagiotis Lachanas DF 13 Vangelis Kefalas MF 14 Theodoros Alexis Manager: Giannis Pathiakakis GK 1 Ilias AtmatsidisCB 3 Nikos KostenoglouCB 4 Stelios Manolas (c) CB 6 Michalis Vlachos DM 5 Refik ŠabanadžovićCM 8 Toni SavevskiRM 2 Vasilios Borbokis LM 11 Michalis Kasapis AM 10 Vasilios Tsiartas SS 7 Temur KetsbaiaCF 9 Daniel Batista Substitutes:GK 15 Vasilis Karagiannis DF 13 Vaios Karagiannis DF 16 Charis Kopitsis MF 14 Christos Maladenis FW 12 Christos Kostis Manager: Dušan Bajević Assistant referees: Antonis Togias (Piraeus) Nikos Vergis (Thessaloniki) Fourth official: Malamas Tevekelis (Thessaloniki)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Five named substitutes Maximum of three substitutions
See also 1995–96 Greek Football Cup
References