Suarez handed two-match ban

Ajax will be without Luis Suarez for the first two games of the Eredivisie season after his sending-off in the Johan Cruyff Plate clash with FC Twente yesterday.

The Uruguay striker, infamously dismissed for his country in the World Cup after a last-minute handball on the goal-line in the quarter-final against Ghana, saw red once again after a reckless lunge at Cheik Tiote and will miss matches against Groningen and Vitesse Arnhem.

He will be joined on the sidelines for the opener by Jan Vertonghen, who remains suspended after also sitting out the pre-season curtain-raiser, which Twente won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Luuk de Jong.