PAOK had eliminated two fellow-citizens, Iraklis and Aris, in the two first rounds, and cup holders Panathinaikos in the semi-finals with an impressive second-leg 4–0 home victory(4–2 on aggregate).
However, they had won with big scores their opponents from lowest divisions: Panegialios with 8–0, Neapoli Piraeus with 7–0, Korinthos with 6–1 and Levadiakos with 5–0.
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.
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.