Totally 72 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki, 18 from Beta, and 36 from Gamma. It was held in 6 rounds, included final.
After the group stage, AEK Athens eliminated in succession Iraklis, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and Athinaikos, while in a big surprise Apollon Athens qualified in semi-finals against PAOK, with 3–1 in Toumba Stadium. For one more time, AEK Athens and Panathinaikos were drawn as opponents in the groups round, in order to be balloted again confronted in quarter-finals. In the final, Demis Nikolaidis played his last match as footballer of Apollon Athens, a few days before his transfer to AEK Athens.[1]
AEK Athens won the cup after 13 years, shattering with 7–1 Apollon Athens, that reached for first and only time a Greek Cup final. AEK won the last title, after 4 championships, with Dušan Bajević as their coach.[2]
Each tie in the knockout phase, apart from the final, was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e. if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the final, which were played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
There are no seedings, and teams from the same group can be drawn against each other.
Greece