Clasie returns as Saints beat Ajax in friendly

Southampton beat Dutch side Ajax in a closed-doors friendly at Staplewood yesterday.

Spanish forward Juanmi scored the winning goal as Ryan Seager scored the other for Southampton. Jordy Clasie lasted an hour as he made his return from injury.

Southampton had a number of first-team players in the line-up. Gaston Ramirez, Jordy Clasie, Jay Rodriguez, Cuco Martina and Juanmi. Ajax also had some young talents on show. Dutch international defender Joel Veltman, linked with a Premier League move in the summer, was in the Ajax side.

Juanmi, who scored the second, and winning, goal for Southampton, has only played in 13 minutes of Premier League action this season and will be hoping that his goal has shown Koeman why he spent £5m on him in the summer from Malaga.

The first goal came from a good cross from Jay Rodriguez that was headed home by Saints Under-21 striker Ryan Seager to give Saints the lead before Juanmi scored Southampton’s second.

Ajax pulled one back after Martina gave away at penalty to the Dutch side. This allowed Ajax to score the penalty and make the score 2-1, which it finished as.

Jordy Clasie, who has been out with a hamstring injury, played 60 minutes on his return to action and will be hoping that this outing will give him a chance of featuring against Leicester in the Premier League after the international week.