Olympiacos hold nerve to oust AEK

By Vassiliki Papantonopoulou

Olympiacos CFP and FC Aris Thessaloniki will meet in the Greek Cup final in Patras on 21 May after both came through tight second legs in their last-four ties tonight.

AEK level tie
It took extra time for Olympiacos to win past visitors AEK Athens FC. Olympiacos had defeated AEK 1-0 in last week's away leg, but against the run of play the visitors leveled the tie tonight on 42 minutes, Nikos Lyberopoulos finding the target with a powerful shot from Konstantinos Katsouranis's clever lobbed pass.

Extra-time goals
AEK had Julio César sent off eleven minutes into the second half for a second yellow card, but held on to force extra time. However, Olympiacos took advantage of AEK's growing fatigue and Nery Alberto Castillo's shot was turned into his own net by visiting defender Evangelos Moras seven minutes into the added half-hour. Olympiacos took a decisive 3-1 aggregate advantage two minutes from the end through Ioannis Okkas to reach their 32nd final as they aim for a 21st cup victory.

Beniskos double
In contrast, Aris have won just one of their six previous finals, but they have another chance after overturning a 2-1 deficit from their home first leg against Xanthi FC. The visitors took nine minutes to level the overall score through Ioakim Beniskos and early in the second half the same player - who has only clocked up 116 minutes of league action since signing in January - lofted a header over the stranded home goalkeeper Petr Pizanovski to leave his side just one game from an eighth UEFA Cup campaign.