A strong friendly test against Ajax
PAOK suffered a 2-1 friendly defeat to Ajax in their first friendly on Dutch soil, in what was a tough test that allowed Razvan Lucescu and his staff to draw some useful conclusions.
The Double-headed Eagle started the match with Pavlenka between the posts, a four-man defense with Taylor, Kedziora, Lovren and Sastre , Kamara and Meite in central midfield, and Konstantelias in front of them with a three-man attack further forward consisting of Despodov, Shoretire and Chalov.
Ajax made the stronger start, being at a more advanced stage in their summer pre-season preparations and threatened after just two minutes, but Pavlenka had the answer to Godz’s shot, with PAOK gradually balancing out the game and looking to create opportunities.
The best of these was Kamara’s attempt to assist Konstantelias , who failed to beat the opposing goalkeeper.
Ajax opened the scoring in the 29th minute with Berghaus scoring after a lapse of concentration in the PAOK defence.
The score remained unchanged until the end of the first half, with Lucescu changing eight of his players at the start of the second half, keeping only Kamara, Meite and Kedziora from the original starting XI. Gugesashvili, Kenny, Michailidis, Baba, Taison, A. Zivkovic, Ozdoev and Mythos joined the action.
PAOK came out strongly and in the 53rd minute Taison hit the woodwork after being set up by Mythos.
In the 57th minute Kamara had a good effort, which was blocked by Pasvir, while in the next phase of play Kamara again had a good moment with a header.
Tsopouroglu, Bataoulas and Balde also joined the action, with Ajax then scoring a second goal in the 71st minute, against the run of play, with Wolf skipping past Bataoulas and then beating Gugesashvili.
PAOK’s response was immediate. Balde stole poesseion high up the pitch, passed to Mythos and from a wide position, he made it 2-1 in the 74th minute, which ended up being the final score, despite the fact that PAOK pressed hard for an equalizer.
Team lineups:
PAOK (1st half): Pavlenka, Sastre, Kedziora, Lovren, Taylor, Meite, Kamara, Despondov, Konstantelias, Shoretire, Chalov.
(2nd half): Gugesashvili, Kenny, Michailides, Kedziora (Bataoulas 64′), Baba, Ozdoev, Meite (Tsopouroglu 72′), A. Zivkovic, Kamara (Balde 64′), Taison, Mythos.
Ajax (1st half): Jaros, Rosa, Bowman, Baas, Weindal, Mocchio, Traore, Fitz-Jim, Berghaus, Godz, Wehorst.
(2nd half): Paswir, Alders, Verschuren, Kaplan, Jeten, Van der Pavert, Stoir, Bunida, Wolf, Broby and Edvartsen.
