The 1976 Greek Cup final was the 32nd final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 9 June 1976 at Nikos Goumas Stadium. The contesting teams were Iraklis and Olympiacos. It was Iraklis' third Greek Cup final in their 68 years of existence and Olympiacos' twenty-first Greek Cup final and fourth consecutive in their 51-year history. The final has been characterized as one of the most thrilling in the history of the institution. Iraklis took the lead 2 times in regular time and Olympiacos equalized as many times. At the extra time, Iraklis made the 4–2, but again Olympiacos equalized in the last minutes, despite being down to 10 players. Eventually, in an equally dramatic penalty shoot-out, Iraklis won the first and only Cup in their history.
Venue This was the fourth Greek Cup final held at AEK Stadium, after the 1962, 1967 and 1974 finals.
AEK Stadium was built in 1930. The stadium is used as a venue for AEK Athens and was used for Greece on various occasions. Its current capacity is 32,000.
Background Iraklis had reached the Greek Cup final two times. The last time that they played in a final was in 1957, where they had lost to Olympiacos by 2–0.
Olympiacos had reached the Greek Cup final twenty times, winning sixteen of them. The last time that they played in a final was in 1975, where they had won against Panathinaikos by 1–0.
The two teams had met each other in a Cup final two times in the 1947 and 1957 finals.
Route to the final
IraklisRoundOlympiacosOpponentResultOpponentResultVeria2–2 (A)First roundProodeftiki3–0 (H)Pierikos1–0 (H)Second roundEthnikos Piraeus1–0 (H)Trikala1–0 (A)Round of 16PAOK1–1 (H)Panetolikos7–1 (A)Quarter-finalsPanionios3–1 (H)Panathinaikos3–2 (H)Semi-finalsAEK Athens3–2 (A)
Match Details
GK 1 Grigoris Fanaras (c)DF 2 Manolis TouboglouDF 8 Makis SentelidisDF 4 Charalampos XanthopoulosDF 3 Lazaros KalaitzidisMF 7 Zoran AntonijevićMF 6 Vangelis KousoulakisMF 9 Vasilis HatzipanagisFW 6 Thanasis ChristoforidisFW 10 Dimitrios Gesios FW 11 Nikos Pantazis Substitutes:MF Giorgos Matsoukatidis FW Nikos Pontikis Manager: Les Shannon GK 1 Panagiotis KelesidisDF 2 Giannis Kyrastas DF 3 Thanasis AngelisDF 4 Vasilis Siokos (c)DF 5 Lakis GlezosMF 6 Petros KaravitisMF 7 Milton Viera MF 8 Kostas Davourlis FW 9 Michalis Kritikopoulos FW 10 Maik GalakosFW 11 Charalampos StavropoulosSubstitutes:DF Takis Synetopoulos DF Giorgos Vasilopoulos Manager: Georgios Darivas Assistant referees: Thomas Kaladamis (Athens) Dimitris Protonotarios (Athens)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 1975–76 Greek Football Cup
References