The 1978 Greek Cup final was the 34th final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 4 June 1978 at Karaiskakis Stadium. The contesting teams were AEK Athens and PAOK. It was AEK Athens' tenth Greek Cup final in their 54 years of existence and PAOK's tenth Greek Cup final and second consecutive in their 52-year history. With their conquest of the Cup, AEK Athens achieved the first domestic double after 39 years and the second in their history.
Venue
This was the tenth Greek Cup final held at Karaiskakis Stadium, after the 1957, 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1977 finals. (Karaiskakis also hosted the replay match of the 1960 final between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos).
Karaiskakis Stadium was built in 1895 and renovated once in 1964. The stadium is used as a venue for Olympiacos and Ethnikos Piraeus and was used for Greece on various occasions. Its current capacity is 42,000 and hosted a European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1971 and the first leg of the Intercontinental Cup final in 1971.
Background AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final nine times, winning five of them. The last time that they played in a final was in 1956, where they had won Olympiacos 2–1.
PAOK had reached the Greek Cup final nine times, winning two of them. The last time that they had won the Cup was in 1974 (4–3 on penalties, which came after a 2–2 draw at the end of the extra time against Olympiacos). The last time that had played in a final was in 1977, where they had lost to Panathinaikos by 2–1.
The two teams had met each other in a Cup final one time in the 1939 final.
Route to the final
AEK AthensRoundPAOKOpponentResultOpponentResultAO Chania6–1 (H)First roundLevadiakos6–1 (H)Panathinaikos1–0 (A)Second roundOlympiacos Volos4–1 (H)Panionios3–0 (H)Round of 16Iraklis1–0 (A)Panelefsiniakos4–2 (A)Quarter-finalsVeria5–0 (H)Olympiacos6–1 (H)Semi-finalsAris1–0 (A)
Match Details
GK 1 Nikos ChristidisRB 2 Giannis MousourisCB 5 Lakis Nikolaou CB 4 Petros RavousisLB 3 Babis IntzoglouDM 6 Milton Viera RM 7 Tasos Konstantinou LM 8 Takis NikoloudisAM 10 Mimis Papaioannou (c) CF 9 Dušan BajevićCF 11 Thomas MavrosSubstitutes:GK 15 Lakis StergioudasDF Theodoros ApostolopoulosDF Apostolos Toskas MF Dionysis TsamisMF Lazaros Papadopoulos MF Christos ArdizoglouManager: Zlatko Čajkovski GK 1 Mladen FurtulaRB 2 Giannis Gounaris CB 4 Angelos AnastasiadisCB 5 Koulis Apostolidis (c)LB 3 Konstantinos IosifidisDM 8 Stavros SarafisRM 7 Panagiotis KermanidisLM 6 Kostas OrfanosAM 10 Giorgos KoudasCF 9 Georgios Kostikos CF 11 Neto GuerinoSubstitutes: DF Nikos Alavantas MF Ioannis Damanakis Manager: Lakis Petropoulos Assistant referees: Panagiotis Tsolakidis (Thessaloniki) Giorgos Moschopoulos (Thessaloniki)Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shootout if scores still level Five named substitutes Maximum of two substitutions
See also 1977–78 Greek Football Cup
References