The 1984β85 Greek Football Cup was the 43rd edition of the
Greek Football Cup.
Tournament details
Totally 76 teams participated, 16 from
Alpha Ethniki, 20 from
Beta, and 40 from
Gamma. It was held in 7 rounds, included final. An additional round was held between first and second, with 6 matches, in order that the teams would continue to be 32.
It was the first Greek Cup final since
1980, where the two finalists were clubs not based on
Attica,
AEL and
PAOK. The two teams had lost in the four previous Finals. PAOK had eliminated two fellow-citizens,
Iraklis and
Aris, in the two first rounds, and
cup holdersPanathinaikos in the semi-finals with an impressive second-leg 4β0 home victory(4β2 on aggregate). AEL had eliminated only one Alpha Ethniki team,
Apollon Kalamarias, in the additional round. However, they had won with big scores their opponents from lowest divisions: Panegialios with 8β0, Neapoli Piraeus with 7β0, Korinthos with 6β1 and Levadiakos with 5β0.
From the interests of year were the qualification of Panathinaikos against Olympiacos, in the third round, with two wins in the
Olympic Stadium, the common home of both teams. Also, the elimination of
AEK Athens for first time from a Gamma Ethniki team,
Lamia, that afterwards was crushed, accepting in total 15 goals from PAOK in the third round. Also, in the first round,
Olympiacos Volos eliminated Acharnaikos in penalty shootout 1β0, after a goaless draw, where after 9 penalties only was scored. OFI were eliminated in the first round by Odysseas Kordelio.
In the final, AEL gained their first title in their history, winning PAOK 4β1.[1][2] Simultaneously, they deprived
The Double by PAOK, that won
the championship of that year. It is remarkable that PAOK's coach,
Austrian Walter Skotzik, was the coach of AEL in
previous season, when they lost in the
final by Panathinaikos. An interesting story of the final was that PAOK's top goalscorer of that season
Christos Dimopoulos didn't participate as he left the team at airport of Athens when they arrived from Thessaloniki for the game. Dimopoulos headed to the headquarters of Motor Oil (company of Panathinaikosβ president Vardinogiannis) in order to seal his transfer to Panathinaikos as his 5-year contract with PAOK was expiring.
Calendar
Round
Date(s)
Fixtures
Clubs
New entries
First Round
31 October & 1, 8, 15 November 1984
38
76 β 38
76
Additional Round
22 November 1984
6
38 β 32
none
Round of 32
28 December 1984 & 17 January 1985
32
32 β 16
none
Round of 16
7, 21 February, 7 March 1985
16
16 β 8
none
Quarter-finals
3 April, 8 May 1985
8
8 β 4
none
Semi-finals
22 May & 4,5 June 1985
4
4 β 2
none
Final
22 June 1985
1
2 β 1
none
Knockout phase
Each tie in the
knockout phase, apart from the first two rounds and 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 first two rounds and 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.