The Reds faced Olympiacos on Saturday evening in a friendly fixture at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium to bring our Athens training camp to a close.
Following a week of hard work on the training pitch and a behind-closed-doors clash against Atromitos, Forest came up against the Greek giants in a fixture which also helped raise funds and awareness for the ELPIDA charity.
Steve Cooper named a strong starting eleven which included the returning Brennan Johnson following his three FIFA World Cup appearances, while Ryan Yates captained the side.
Orel Mangala won back possession in midfield before breaking forward, Morgan Gibbs-White and Jesse Lingard for company but couldn’t quite thread the ball through before Olympiacos could clear the danger.
Willy Boly made an important block six minutes in to deny Pep Biel after the Spaniard advanced towards goal, while Ryan Yates had The Reds’ first chance after 12 minutes but couldn’t quite keep his effort below the crossbar following Gibbs-White’s cross.
Kostas Fortounis came closest to opening the scoring seven minutes before the break, a neat ball over the top found the winger inside the area before Dean Henderson made a superb save to push the ball behind for a corner.
From the resulting set piece, Olympiacos took the lead through former Red Pajtim Kasami. The attacking midfielder rose well to meet the corner from the right and glanced a well-placed header into the bottom corner.
The hosts nearly doubled their lead just before the break, Youssef El-Arabi blazing over with a left-footed strike from inside the penalty area.
Half time: Olympiacos 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Steve Cooper made four changes during the interval, with Joe Worrall, Steve Cook, Lewis O'Brien and Taiwo Awoniyi replace Boly, Mangala, Lingard and Scott McKenna.
Further changes shortly after saw the introduction of Emmanuel Dennis, Harry Toffolo and recent new signing Gustavo Scarpa in place of Jack Colback, Renan Lodi and Johnson as Cooper further shuffled his pack.
Gibbs-White came close to forcing an equaliser just after the hour mark, seeing a strike superbly saved by home ‘keeper Konstantinos Tzolakis as Forest continued to show improvement in the second period.
Olympiacos responded with substitutions of their own, including Brazilian full-back Marcelo alongside Cedric Bakambu and on-loan Forest winger Josh Bowler.
On 74 minutes, O’Brien forced Tzolakis into another smart stop after hitting a low powerful effort from 25 yards, a strike which the 20-year-old goalkeeper got down well to palm away.
Seven minutes later, Gibbs-White struck a free-kick from 25 yards following a foul on Toffolo but he couldn’t quite keep his effort below the crossbar as The Reds pressed on in search of an equaliser.
Sam Surridge entered the action with eight minutes remaining, replacing the aforementioned Gibbs-White.
Despite their endeavour until the final whistle, Forest couldn’t find a way through the stubborn Olympiacos backline and ended the week-long trip with a narrow defeat in Athens.
Full time: Olympiacos 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest: Dean Henderson, Serge Aurier (Loic Mbe Soh 90'), Willy Boly (Joe Worrall 46'), Scott McKenna (Steve Cook 46'), Renan Lodi (Harry Toffolo 61'), Jack Colback (Gustavo Scarpa 61'), Ryan Yates, Orel Mangala (Lewis O'Brien 46'), Morgan Gibbs-White (Sam Surridge 82'), Jesse Lingard (Taiwo Awoniyi 46'), Brennan Johnson (Emmanuel Dennis 61')
Substitutes: Jordan Smith, Adnan Kanuric, Loic Bade