The 2019 Greek Cup final was the 75th final of the Greek Cup. It took place on 11 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were PAOK and AEK Athens for a third time in row. It was PAOK's twentieth Greek Cup final and third consecutive, in their 93 years of existence and AEK Athens' twenty fourth Greek Cup final and fourth consecutive, of their 95-year history. For security issues, the match occurred behind closed doors with 1,500 invitations been distributed by both clubs and the HFF. It was the match in Greece to be held with VAR technology. With their conquest of the Cup, PAOK achieved the first double in their history.

Venue

This was the twenty fourth 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, 2015, 2016 and 2018 finals.

The Athens Olympic Stadium was built in 1982 and renovated once in 2004. The stadium is used as a venue for AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and Greece and was used for Olympiacos 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 PAOK had reached the Greek Cup final nineteen times, winning six of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 2018, where they had won against AEK Athens by 2–0.

AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final twenty three times, winning fourteen of them. The last time that they had won the Cup was in 2016 (2–1 against Olympiacos). The last time that they had played in a final was in 2018, where they had lost to PAOK by 2–0.

The two teams had met each other in a Cup final five times in the 1939, 1978, 1983, 2017 and 2018 finals.

Route to the final

PAOKRoundAEK AthensOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResultAris1–1 (H)Matchday 1Lamia2–1 (H)Ergotelis2–1 (A)Matchday 2Apollon Larissa4–0 (A)Aittitos Spata6–0 (A)Matchday 3Volos3–1 (A)Group D winnersFinal standingsGroup B winnersOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnockout phaseOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legPanachaiki6–21–2 (A)5–0 (H)Round of 16AO Chania−Kissamikos6–11–1 (A)5–0 (H)Panionios5–41–2 (A)4–2 (H)Quarter-finalsAtromitos4–01–0 (A)3–0 (H)Asteras Tripolis2–02–0 (H)0–0 (A)Semi-finalsLamia6–02–0 (H)4–0 (A)

Match

Details

GK 31 Alexandros Paschalakis RB  3 Léo Matos CB 15 José Ángel Crespo CB  5 Fernando Varela LB 23 Dimitris Giannoulis DM 87 José Cañas CM 28 Yevhen Shakhov RM 98 Léo Jabá LM 21 Diego Biseswar AM 10 Dimitrios Pelkas (c) CF 47 Chuba Akpom Substitutes:GK 60 Symeon PapadopoulosDF  4 Sverrir Ingi Ingason DF 32 Lefteris Lyratzis MF 26 Sérgio Oliveira FW 18 Dimitrios Limnios FW 90 Pedro HenriqueFW  9 Karol Świderski Manager: Răzvan Lucescu GK  1 Vasilis BarkasRB  2 Michalis Bakakis  CB  4 Marios Oikonomou CB 19 Dmytro Chyhrynskyi LB 23 Niklas Hult DM  8 André Simões CM  6 Nenad Krstičić  RM 14 Anastasios Bakasetas   LM 20 Petros Mantalos (c)SS 10 Marko Livaja CF 22 Ezequiel Ponce Substitutes:GK 16 Panagiotis Tsintotas DF 12 Rodrigo Galo  DF 24 Stratos Svarnas DF 50 Michalis BousisMF 25 Konstantinos Galanopoulos  FW 77 Christos Giousis FW 31 Lucas Boyé  Manager: Manolo Jiménez Man of the Match: Chuba Akpom (PAOK)

Assistant referees: Mark Borsch (Germany) Marco Achmüller (Germany) Fourth official: Thorsten Schiffner (Germany) Video assistant referee: Sascha Stegemann (Germany) Assistant video assistant referee: Sven Jablonski (Germany)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