The 1981âÂÂ82 Greek Football Cup was the 40th edition of the Greek Football Cup.
In total 58 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki and 40 from Beta Ethniki. It was held in 6 rounds, included final.
It was a competition that remained in history for one of the most discussed matches between the "eternal enemies", Panathinaikos and Olympiacos. The match was held in second round and took the spotlight of the tournament. The match which took place at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium was judged in extra time. There, Panathinaikos scored 3 times (2 goals with penalty, while they missed another one) and finished the match with 10 players, while Olympiacos scored twice and later scored once more, but was eventually cancelled. ÃÂll these happened in first 12 minutes the match. Both clubs eventually expressed their complaints for the referee.
In other matches, PAOK won AEK Athens 6âÂÂ1 and the qualifications of Panathinaikos, against Iraklis in extra time, while the administration of Panathinaikos had prohibited to entry television cameras in the second leg, and against PAOK in semi-finals with a goal to last minute of the second game.
In the final, they faced AEL who qualified for the first time in their history in a Greek Cup final. Panathinaikos won 1âÂÂ0, however was not awarded the cup, but a commemorative trophy, since an objection by Olympiacos was pending at their expense, for the affair of outlaw Hellenisation of footballer Juan Ramón Rocha. The handing-over became two months later, after the end of those events.
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.<br />The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows: