Carlos Forbs fires Ajax to friendly win over Conference League holders Olympiacos

Ajax booked their fourth friendly win in a row. Coach Francesco Farioli's team saw their team win 1-0 against Olympiacos. Carlos Forbs scored the only goal of the match just before half-time. However, there are concerns about Owen Wijndal, who had to leave the field with an arm injury.

Ajax played two friendly matches in quick succession this week. The players who played against Al-Wasl (2-1 win) from the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, were not part of the selection for the match against Olympiacos on Friday.

For Ajax, the match against Olympiacos was the last test in the run-up to the preliminary rounds of the Europa League. On 25 July and 1 August, the Amsterdammers will face FK Vojvodina.

Josip Sutalo made his first minutes for Ajax in the new season. The defender joined later because of his participation in the European Championship, where Croatia got stuck in the group stage. Brian Brobbey and Steven Bergwijn, who reached the semi-finals with the Dutch national team, are still on holiday.

Ajax was dominant for almost the entire first half and had by far the most ball possession. However, the first danger came from the Greeks. Charalampos Kostoulas ran away from Dies Janse in the back and could have shot diagonally in front of the goal, but fired just wide.

After that it was mainly Ajax that struck the clock. The first good attack of the Amsterdammers followed after fifteen minutes, when Jayden Banel gave the ball well on the left to the advancing Wijndal. The left back of Ajax crossed low to Kian Fitz-Jim, who saw his effort saved by goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis.

A few minutes later Ajax suffered a major setback when Wijndal had to leave the field with a nasty arm injury. The left wing defender was injured in a seemingly innocent aerial duel. His opponent Georgios Masouras jumped into the air and then leaned on Wijndal's body, who immediately grabbed his left arm. Benjamin Tahirovic came into the team as an occasional left back.

There were two more good attacks from Ajax in the first half. In the 25th minute Forbs just couldn't reach a cross from Banel, who was set free by a through ball from Fitz-Jim.

Ajax took the lead just before half-time. That was largely thanks to Kenneth Taylor, who fiercely drove the ball away from Charalampos Kostoulas near the halfway line. Taylor took the ball a bit and served Forbs, who calmly tapped the ball past keeper Paschalakis: 1-0.

Olympiacos came out of the dressing room well and soon had a great chance to equalize. A deep ball fell perfectly to Masouras, who had a free passage but saw Pasveer make a great save with his leg.

Ajax had a hard time with Olympiacos, who once again came close to 1-1. This time Gelson Martins fired a shot, which was turned into the near corner by Pasveer. The game did not change much. Olympiacos kept pressing, while Ajax did not get a chance.

Just before time, the Amsterdammers got away with it again, when a header from Janse ended up on the top of Pasveer's crossbar. Ajax held their ground against the strong Greeks and thus booked their next friendly victory in the run-up to the match against FK Vojvodina.

Ajax line-up: feather key; Rensch, Sutalo, Janse, Wijndal; Henderson, Taylor, Fitz-Jim; Banel, Akpom, Forbs.

Olympiakos line-up: Paschalakis; Costinha, Abbey, Koutsidis, Apostolopoulos; Chiquinho, Bakoulas, Stamenic; Masouras, Biel, Kostoulas.

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