1978–79 Greek Cup

The Greek Cup 1978–79 was the 37th edition of The Greek Football Cup, or Greek Cup for short.

Tournament details

Totally 58 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki and 40 from Beta Ethniki. It was held in 6 rounds, included final. That year was established for first time the two-legged tie on a home and away basis, for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, according to the model of European cups.

Up to those matches, the most interesting round was Third. By 8 matches, only 2 were judged into 90 minutes. In matches between Aris and Panathinaikos and Olympiacos and PAOK, the home teams qualified in penalty shootout. With this rule, Aris had earlier eliminated Iraklis.

The final was contested by champion of that season, AEK Athens, and Panionios, that qualified in a Greek Cup Final after 12 years. Panionios made a surprise by eliminating both Aris, in quarter-finals, with a 5–1 victory - inversion in their home, after their defeat 5–2 in Aris' home, and Olympiacos, in semi-finals, with away goals rule. The surprise was completed in final, held at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus on 9 June 1979, where Panionios took the title 3–1, winning at the same time their first title in their history.

First round

Home team	Score	Away team
Panachaiki	3–0	Veria
Aris	3–2	Makedonikos
Korinthos	1–0	Irodotos
Kallithea	3–1	PAS Giannina
Agrotikos Asteras	1–0	Chania
Xanthi	2–0+	Anagennisi Arta
PAOK	2–1	Panelefsiniakos
Ilisiakos	0–1	Olympiacos
Anagennisi Karditsa	0–2	Rodos
Atromitos	4–1	Apollon Kalamaria
Ethnikos Piraeus	3–1 (a.e.t.)	Olympiakos Liosia
AEK Athens	5–2	Kavala
Panarkadikos	0–1	OFI
Ethnikos Asteras	0–2	Niki Volos
Fostiras	2–0	Ionikos
Panionios	3–1	Olympiakos Loutraki
Egaleo	3–2	Larissa
Trikala	4–3	Makedonikos Siatista
Edessaikos	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Anagennisi Giannitsa
Almopos Aridea	3–0	Ethnikos Olympiakos Volos
Apollon Athens	2–0	Panserraikos
Drapetsona	0–2	Iraklis
Chalkida	2–0	Lamia
Kilkisiakos	2–3 (a.e.t.)	Acharnaikos
Anagennisi Epanomi	1–0	Panetolikos
Naousa	1–2	Doxa Drama
Panathinaikos	3–1	Pierikos
Proodeftiki	4–1	Kastoria
Karditsa A.C.	1–0	Levadiakos

⁺Without match

Second round

Home team	Score	Away team
Apollon Athens	2–0	Egaleo
Panionios	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Edessaikos
AEK Athens	4–0	Proodeftiki
Trikala	1–0	Atromitos
Kallithea	6–1	Xanthi
OFI	2–3	Panathinaikos
Karditsa A.C.	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Chalkida
Korinthos	1–2	Doxa Drama
Iraklis	1–1	Aris
Aris won 5-4 on penalties
Anagennisi Epanomi	1–0	Niki Volos
Ethnikos Piraeus	0–1	Olympiacos
Almopos Aridea	2–1	Agrotikos Asteras
Fostiras	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Rodos
PAOK	bye
Panachaiki	bye
Acharnaikos	bye

Third round

Home team	Score	Away team
Aris	0–0	Panathinaikos
Aris won 5-4 on penalties
Karditsa A.C.	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Panachaiki
Anagennisi Epanomi	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Trikala
AEK Athens	4–0	Acharnaikos
Olympiacos	2–2	PAOK
Olympiacos won 6-5 on penalties
Kallithea	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Apollon Athens
Panionios	1–0	Almopos Aridea
Fostiras	0–0	Doxa Drama
Fostiras won 3-1 on penalties

Quarter-finals

First legs were played on March 14, 1979, while second on April 18.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Fostiras	4-5	Olympiacos	2-2	2-3 (a.e.t.)
Kallithea	2-2	Panachaiki (a.g.)	2-1	0-1
Aris	6-7	Panionios	5-2	1-5
Anagennisi Epanomi	1-3	AEK Athens	1-1	0-2

Semi-finals

First legs were played on May 16, 1979. Second legs on 30th.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Panionios (a.g.)	4-4	Olympiacos	2-1	2-3
Panachaiki	4-7	AEK Athens	3-2	1-5

Final

The 37th Greek Cup Final was played at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus.

Panionios v AEK Athens

June 9, 1979

Panionios	3 – 1	AEK Athens
Anastopoulos  51' Lima  67' Pathiakakis  84'		Konstantinou  3'

Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus Attendance: 20,299 Referee: Lagogiannis (Piraeus)

PANIONIOS: Kakkaris Zacharopoulos Gravanis Chalkidis Emvoliadis Saipas  46' Lima Mavrikis (c) Anastopoulos Pathiakakis Vallidis Substitute: Moraitelis  46' Manager: Panos Marković

AEK ATHENS: Stergioudas Mousouris Tsamis Ravousis Nikolaou (c) Ardizoglou  46' Konstantinou  62' Nikoloudis Bajević Domazos Mavros Substitute: Apostolopoulos  46' Manager: Andreas Stamatiadis

MATCH RULES 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. One substitute.

References

• Greek Cup 1978-79 at RSSSF