Ajax manager John Heitinga picked up right where he left off last weekend, when the former Netherlands international surprisingly kept many of his expensive summer transfers on the bench. Oscar Gloukh, Raul Moro, and Kasper Dolberg all started as reserves against Inter, giving Youri Regeer, Oliver Edvardsen, and Wout Weghorst more starts.
Last year's finalists Inter were without star striker Lautaro Martinez, who was left on the bench with fitness issues. 20-year-old Pio Esposito replaced the Argentine and started alongside Marcus Thuram.
A quiet first half didn't come to life before the 34th minute, when referee Michael Oliver pointed at the spot for an Inter penalty. Ajax defender Youri Baas was penalised for pulling Marcus Thuram's shirt, but upon further review, Taylor cancelled the penalty and penalised Thuram for pulling Baas's shirt, keeping Ajax alive.
Just a few minutes later, Oliver Edvardsen launched Mika Godts with a deep ball onto Inter's half, putting the Belgian winger one-on-one with Yann Sommer. Unable to keep his cool during a big chance, Godts chose to attack Sommer's near post, but his effort was too weak to test the Swiss stopper.
It taught Ajax a hard lesson in ruthlessness as Inter opened the scoring a minute later, when Marcus Thuram freely headed the ball in from Hakan Calhanoglu's corner.
Ajax and Heitinga were left to fight an uphill battle from there on, and it wouldn't get any easier when Thuram doubled Inter's lead two minutes after half-time. The Frenchman headed in a Calhanoglu corner again, putting Inter up 2-0 with 43 minutes to go.
A toothless Ajax caused Inter very few problems in the second half, in which it took the four-time Champions League winners until the 69th minute to even record an attempt at goal and get somewhat close to Sommer.
Inter had little reason to put pressure on Ajax, who were simply unable to threaten Inter's lead for the remainder of the second half.
A late opportunity saw Kasper Dolberg, who made his first minutes in an Ajax shirt since 2019, head the ball over the bar of a near-empty goal after heavily duelling with Manuel Akanji.
Inter comfortably won their first game of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League as they eye a fourth final in five years. The Serie A champions face Slavia Prague next at San Siro.
Ajax, who played their first Champions League game since the group stage of the 2022/23 season, will look to get their first points in two weeks' time, when the away game at Olympique Marseille will be played.
View all the statistics of Ajax-Inter on Flashscore.
