Totally 50 teams participated, 16 from Alpha Ethniki, 16 from Beta, and 18 from Gamma. It was held in 6 rounds, including the final. An Additional Round was held between First and Second, with 2 matches, in order that the teams who progress would be 16. In the First round, there were 8 groups with 6 teams each, while 2 teams qualified without matches. For the first time, there were double matches in the group stage, thus each team played 10 games. Because the tournament began very early in the summer, in a period where teams should play preparation friendlies, the Hellenic Football Federation allowed at the 5 first matches a maximum of 7 substitutions, something unusual in Greece, very probably and internationally, for matches of an official competition. After the group stage, there were very interesting confrontations, after drawing elected "strong" pairs. In the Second round Olympiacos eliminated AEK with two wins. The first leg in Nikos Goumas Stadium was awarded to Olympiacos 2–0 in an eventful match that was abandoned against Enosis and while the scoreline was 1–1 at the time. In the second leg, at Athens Olympic Stadium, Olympiacos' home ground then, they shattered AEK 6–1. In the same round, in Thessaloniki's derby between PAOK and Aris, PAOK qualified with a 1–1 away draw and a 2–0 home victory. Remarkable in this round was also the qualification of Panathinaikos against Panionios with a 7–2 second leg demolition, while the first leg ended with a 1–0 win of Panionios. In the quarter-finals followed the conflict between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos. First leg ended 1–1 in Athens Olympic Stadium, while in the second leg the reds triumphed 4–1 in Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium against their arch-rivals. More exciting were the semi-finals between Olympiacos and Iraklis. Olympiacos with two victories, 1–0 away and 5–4 at home, qualified for the Final. The Final was held in Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens on 12 May 2001. A draw was preceded on 19 April to determine in which stadium/city the final would be hosted . Olympiacos faced PAOK, 9 years after their last conflict in a cup final and for a 7th clash in total. Several days before the game, Olympiacos president Sokratis Kokkalis made a memorable statement using a Greek expression that Olympiacos would lose the upcoming final only if the devil would break his leg . However, PAOK easily won the match 4–2 with an impressive performance and earned the trophy 27 years after their last success, in the same stadium against the same opponent. During the awarding ceremony, former goalkeeper of PAOK Mladen Furtula whispered to Kokkalis that the devil did break his leg that day and Kokkalis responded with a laugh. PAOK manager Dušan Bajević, became the first in history to win the trophy with three different teams. He also coached AEK in 1996 and Olympiacos in 1999.
