The 1979 Greek Cup final was the 35th final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 9 June 1979 at Karaiskakis Stadium. The contesting teams were Panionios and AEK Athens. It was Panionios' fourth Greek Cup final in their 89 years of existence and AEK Athens' eleventh Greek Cup final and second consecutive in their 55-year history. Panionios with a 3–1 comeback, defeated the champions of that year, AEK Athens, claiming their first Cup and completed one of the biggest surprises in the history of the institution.
Venue
This was the eleventh Greek Cup final held at Karaiskakis Stadium, after the 1957, 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 and 1978 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 Panionios had reached the Greek Cup final three times. The last time that they played in a final was in 1967, where they had lost to Panathinaikos by 1–0.
AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final ten times, winning six of them. The last time that they played in a final was in 1978, where they had won against PAOK by 2–0.
The two teams had never met each other in a Cup final.
Route to the final
PanioniosRoundAEK AthensOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legOlympiakos Loutraki3–1 (H)First roundKavala5–2 (H)Edessaikos3–2 (H)Second roundProodeftiki4–0 (H)Almopos Aridea1–0 (H)Round of 16Acharnaikos4–0 (H)Aris7–62–5 (A)5–1 (H)Quarter-finalsAnagennisi Epanomi3–11–1 (A)2–0 (H)Olympiacos4–4 (a)2–1 (H)3–2 (A)Semi-finalsPanachaiki7–42–3 (A)5–1 (H)
Match Details
GK 1 Zafeiris KakkarisDF Serafim ZacharopoulosDF Giannis GravanisDF Nikos ChalkidisDF Christos EmvoliadisMF Charampos Saipas MF Noni LimaMF 10 Giannis PathiakakisFW Dimitris Mavrikis (c) FW Nikos AnastopoulosFW Vasilis VallidisSubstitute:GK 15 KyriakidisDF Giorgos KalogeropoulosMF Vasilis Moraitelis MF Santiago OjedaFW Thomas LioliosFW Dimitris SaravakosManager: Panos Markovic GK 1 Lakis StergioudasDF 2 Giannis MousourisDF 4 Petros RavousisDF 5 Lakis Nikolaou (c) DF 3 Christos Ardizoglou MF 6 Dionysis TsamisMF 8 Takis NikoloudisMF 10 Mimis DomazosFW 7 Tasos Konstantinou FW 9 Dušan BajevićFW 11 Thomas MavrosSubstitute:GK 15 Nikos ChristidisDF 13 Theodoros Apostolopoulos DF Apostolos ToskasDF Panagiotis StylianopoulosMF Christos KalaitzidisMF Dimitris KokkinopoulosManager: Andreas Stamatiadis Assistant referees: Nikos Zlatanos (Thessaloniki) Giannis Latsios (Larissa)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 1978–79 Greek Football Cup
References