The 1997 Greek Cup final was the 53rd final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 16 April 1997 at Karaiskakis Stadium. The contesting teams were AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. It was AEK Athens' fifteenth Greek Cup final and fourth consecutive in their 73 years of existence and Panathinaikos' twenty third Greek Cup final in their 89-year history. For third time in the 4 last years AEK Athens and Panathinaikos were pondered over in the final. The loss of Cup for Panathinaikos, in combination with their 5th place finish in the championship, resulted in club not qualifying for any European competition for the first time in the last 25 years.

Venue

This was the twelfth Greek Cup final held at Karaiskakis Stadium, after the 1957, 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1979 finals (Karaiskakis also hosted the replay match of the 1960 final between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos and the second leg of the 1992 two-legged final between PAOK and Olympiacos).

Karaiskakis Stadium was built in 1895 and renovated once in 1964. The stadium is used as a venue for Ethnikos Piraeus and was used for Olympiacos and Greece on various occasions. Its current capacity is 42,000 and hosted a UEFA 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 fourteen times, winning nine of them. The last time that played in a final was in 1996, where they had won against Apollon Athens by 7–1.

Panathinaikos had reached the Greek Cup final twenty two times, winning fifteen of them. The last time that they had played the Cup was in 1995, where they had won against AEK Athens by 1–0 after extra time.

The two teams had met each other in a Cup final four times in the 1948, 1949, 1994 and 1995 finals.

Route to the final

AEK AthensRoundPanathinaikosOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legSkoda Xanthi8–35–0 (H)3–3 (A)Round of 32Athinaikos6–03–0 (H)3–0 (A)ILTEX Lykoi6–13–1 (H)3–0 (A)Round of 16Iraklis4–01–0 (A)3–0 (H)Paniliakos5–13–1 (H)2–0 (A)Quarter-finalsIalysos3–12–0 (H)1–1 (A)Olympiacos3–12–1 (H)1–0 (A)Semi-finalsPanachaiki7–03–0 (H)4–0 (A)

Match Details

GK  1 Ilias AtmatsidisRB  4 Vasilios Borbokis CB  6 Stelios ManolasCB  2 Nikos KostenoglouLB  3 Michalis Kasapis (c) DM  5 Triantafyllos MachairidisCM  7 Toni Savevski  CM 10 Temuri Ketsbaia RW  8 Daniel BatistaLW  9 Christos Kostis  CF 11 Demis NikolaidisSubstitutes:DF 14 Anton Doboş  DF 16 Charis Kopitsis  FW 15 Marcelo Veridiano   Manager: Petros Ravousis GK  1 Józef WandzikRB  2 Stratos Apostolakis (c)CB  6 Marinos Ouzounidis CB  4 Giannis Goumas CB  8 Georgios Alexopoulos LB  3 Thanasis Kolitsidakis DM  5 Dimitris Markos CM  7 Giorgos GeorgiadisCM 10 Bledar Kola CF 11 Alexis Alexoudis CF  9 Krzysztof WarzychaSubstitutes:DF 16 Kostas Konstantinidis MF 15 Georgios Kapouranis FW 17 Georgios Nasiopoulos Manager: Velimir Zajec Assistant referees: Christoforos Zografos (Athens) Christos Ioannidis (Serres) Fourth official: Panagiotis Varouchas (Athens)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 1996–97 Greek Football Cup

References