Eredivisie postpones entire series to give Ajax more time to prepare for Tottenham's shock

Ajax has received considerable support from the Dutch Football Association before its Champions League semi-final match with Tottenham.

The Dutch giants stunned Juventus on Tuesday night to qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League with a 2-1 victory in Turin.

In doing so, Ajax reached its first semifinal of the Champions League for 22 years and will face the Spurs in the first leg on Tuesday, April 30, before the return meeting in Amsterdam the following Wednesday.

After eliminating Real Madrid, champion of the previous three seasons, and now Juventus, the exciting young team of Erik Ten Hag will want to emit another shock and reach the final of Madrid.

The KNVB gave them a huge advantage in anticipation of the first leg in London. They decided to postpone Eredivisie's entire series of games.

Ajax had to face De Graafschap on Sunday, April 28 – just two days before the Champions League game in the middle of the week – but that's no longer the case.

The KNVB said that Eredivisie teams should enjoy at least two full days of rest between matches and that the match could not be postponed to Friday or Saturday because it is of a holiday in Holland. It is therefore difficult to ensure proper monitoring and control.

Thus, the penultimate week of matches of the Dutch league will be postponed to May 15, which means that it will be the last round of matches of the regular season.

The Ajax then have a full week of rest between their league match and Vitesse before facing the Spurs in London.

Meanwhile, Tottenham will only have two days off to face West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday.

Eric Gudde, KNVB Football Director, said: "The wishes of the clubs were identified during the creation of the match schedule for the 2018-19 season.

"It was decided jointly that canceling a mid-week round should be given priority over the very small chance that one of the clubs will go so far in the Champions League."