In the summer of 1997, Michalis Trochanas, no longer able to bear the weight of managing the club, but also with the vast majority of the fans against him, unsuccessfully looked for a buyer, putting the lawyer, Alexis Kougias in the position of president.

On the other hand, Giannis Kalitzakis, Arnar Grétarsson, Evripidis Katsavos, Theodoros Alexis and Vangelis Kefalas were transferred to the club.

The team started the championship relatively well and after a few months the psychology of the crowd rose, since Michalis Trochanas eventually sold his shares to the financially powerful, English multinational ENIC.

[2] The former player of AEK, Lakis Nikolaou took over as president, Manolas returned to the team and rich contract renewals and in January some transfers were made.

Despite being the winter champions, AEK were affected by the injuries on the roster, left quite behind in the league table and eventually could not claim the title from Olympiacos.

Unfortunately, the game claimed the life of Christos Kostis, who in a collision with Sidorchuk was seriously injured, effectively ending his career that night, as he never managed to return.

Sturm pressed, toiled, were well set up on the pitch, but managed nothing more than scoring a goal 8 minutes before the end of the match.

Nea Filadelfeia was full of people waiting for a qualifying score to make the rematch in frozen Moscow an easy task for the double-headed eagle.

But AEK was not performing as expected, having a bad day and at the same time facing an excellent pressing and a suffocating pressure and overlap from the defense of the guests, AEK did not reach a goal and ended the match with 9 players due to the dismissal of Doboș in the 75th minute and Karagiannis in the stoppage time.

In the 66th minute, AEK's pressure paid off and Maladenis won a penalty which Kopitsis converted into a goal.

The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal, then by shirt number and then alphabetically by surname.