Totally 72 teams participated, 18 from Alpha Ethniki, 18 from Beta, and 36 from Gamma. It was held in 6 rounds, included final.
The final was contested for second consecutive year by Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. The "greens" via fire and iron, while in their course they eliminated, inter alia, Skoda Xanthi, with a goal in the last minute of extra time, and Olympiacos, with a goal in the last minute of the match with away goals rule.
Contrary to the shocking final of 1994, the final of that season was marked by incidents on and off the pitch, by the moment that the referee, Filippos Bakas awarded a penalty in favour of Panathinaikos a few minutes before the end of extra time.[1] This event caused protests, expulsions, riots between fans of both teams (with 21 arrests in total), while certain footballers of AEK Athens denied to attend in the title ceremony. Few days later, Bakas was attacked and wounded from an unknown person in a street near to the airport of Elliniko.[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
