2020–21 Greek Football Cup Explained

Greek Cup
Year:2020–21
Country:Greece
Num Teams:14
Defending Champions:Olympiacos
Champions:PAOK (8th title)
Runner-Up:Olympiacos
Continentalcup1:Europa Conference League
Matches:25
Goals:76
Top Goal Scorer:Christos Tzolis
Michael Krmenčík
(5 goals each)
Prevseason:2019–20
Nextseason:2021–22

The 2020–21 Greek Football Cup was the 79th edition of the Greek Football Cup. It took place with the participation of the 14 clubs from the Super League 1, as there was no competitive action in the lower divisions (Super League 2, Football League and Gamma Ethniki) until early January due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hellenic Football Federation decided that the Cup would be held with the participation of teams only from the Super League, which was running normally.[1] The winner of the Cup qualified for the next season's Europa Conference League third qualifying round.

Calendar

Round Date(s) Fixtures Clubs New entries
First round20, 21 January and 3, 4 February 2021 12 14 → 8 12
Quarter-finals 10, 11, 18 February and 3, 4 March 2021 8 8 → 4 2
Semi-finals 7 April and 28, 29 April 2021 4 4 → 2 none
Final 22 May 2021 1 2 → 1 none

First round

The draw for this round took place on 5 January 2021.[2]

Summary

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Matches

PAOK won 7–1 on aggregate.----Volos won 3–1 on aggregate.----PAS Giannina won 5–4 on aggregate.----Aris won 4–0 on aggregate.----AEK Athens won 3–2 on aggregate.----Olympiacos won 6–0 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

The draw for this round took place on 5 February 2021.[3] Shortly afterwards, Olympiacos vice-president Kostas Karapapas and Aris president Theodoros Karypidis both implied that the draw was fixed and claimed that some of the balls used during the procedure by the HFF representative and chairman of the Greek Cup Committee Manos Gavrielidis were previously heated.[4] Gavrielidis stated that there was a livestream of the draw and everything was performed according to the restrictions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic which forbade the presence of club representatives, a rule that was also applied in the previous round's draw.[5] The HFF issued a statement later that day denouncing the accusation as ridiculous and absurd.[6] Olympiacos issued a statement in response, insisting that the draw was fixed by the Federation and accusing the HFF representatives of being corrupt and responsible for the total degradation of the competition and of Greek football in general.[7]

Matches

PAOK won 6–3 on aggregate.----Olympiacos won 3–2 on aggregate.----AEK Athens won 4–3 on aggregate.----The match was held at Panetolikos Stadium due to the inappropriateness of the Zosimades Stadium.[8] PAS Giannina won 4–2 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

The draw for this round took place on 16 March 2021.[9]

Matches

Olympiacos won 4–2 on aggregate.----PAOK won 3–1 on aggregate.

Final

See main article: 2021 Greek Football Cup final.

Top scorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Christos TzolisPAOK5
Michael Krmenčík
3 Anastasios DouvikasVolos2
Ahmed HassanOlympiacos
3 Konstantinos KotsopoulosAtromitos2
Gerasimos MitoglouVolos
Nélson OliveiraAEK Athens
Youssef El-ArabiOlympiacos
Muamer TankovićAEK Athens
BrumaOlympiacos

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 5 January 2021 . Αποφάσεις Εκτελεστικής Επιτροπής . Decisions of the Executive Committee . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation . el.
  2. Web site: 5 January 2021 . Κύπελλο Ελλάδος: αποτελέσματα κλήρωσης . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation.
  3. Web site: 5 February 2021 . Κύπελλο Ελλάδος: Τα ζευγάρια της προημιτελικής φάσης . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation.
  4. Web site: 5 February 2021 . Κλήρωση Κυπέλλου Ελλάδος: Αντιδράσεις Ολυμπιακού και Αρη, η απάντηση του ΠΑΟΚ . Greek Football Cup draw: Olympiacos and Aris reactions, PAOK response . 5 February 2021 . iefimerida.gr . el.
  5. Web site: 5 February 2021 . Κλήρωση 7ης φάσης Κυπέλλου Ελλάδος 2020–21 (video) . 2020–21 Greek Football Cup quarter-finals draw (video) . 5 February 2021 . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation . el.
  6. Web site: 5 February 2021 . Ανακοίνωση της Ελληνικής Ποδοσφαιρικής Ομοσπονδίας . Statement of the Hellenic Football Federation . 5 February 2021 . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation . el.
  7. Web site: 5 February 2021 . Ανακοίνωση της ΠΑΕ Ολυμπιακός . PAE Olympiacos statement . 5 February 2021 . olympiacos.org . el.
  8. Web site: Στο Αγρίνιο ο πρώτος προημιτελικός Κυπέλλου μεταξύ ΠΑΣ και Παναθηναϊκού.
  9. Web site: 16 March 2021 . Κλήρωση ημιτελικής φάσης Κυπέλλου Ελλάδος 2020–21 (video) . 2020–21 Greek Football Cup semi-finals draw (video) . 16 March 2021 . EPO - Hellenic Football Federation . el.