diff --git a/LegacyAutoloader.php b/LegacyAutoloader.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b120a691765
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LegacyAutoloader.php
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<?php
+
+class LegacyAutoloader
+{
+    public function __construct()
+    {
+        spl_autoload_register(array($this, 'load_class'));
+    }
+
+    public static function register()
+    {
+        new LegacyAutoloader();
+    }
+
+    public function load_class($className)
+    {
+        if (strpos($className, 'Matomo\\') === 0) {
+            $newName = 'Piwik' . substr($className, 6);
+            if (class_exists($newName) && !class_exists($className, false)) {
+                @class_alias($newName, $className);
+            }
+        } elseif (strpos($className, 'Piwik\\') === 0) {
+            $newName = 'Matomo' . substr($className, 5);
+            if (class_exists($newName) && !class_exists($className, false)) {
+                @class_alias($newName, $className);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+LegacyAutoloader::register();
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index e3b0767423a..513fa7273ef 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -107,7 +107,8 @@
             "HTML_": "libs/",
             "PEAR_": "libs/",
             "Archive_": "libs/"
-        }
+        },
+        "files": ["LegacyAutoloader.php"]
     },
     "autoload-dev": {
         "psr-4": {
diff --git a/core/Plugin/ControllerAdmin.php b/core/Plugin/ControllerAdmin.php
index 276e06557e7..581515c9a76 100644
--- a/core/Plugin/ControllerAdmin.php
+++ b/core/Plugin/ControllerAdmin.php
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ private static function notifyIfEAcceleratorIsUsed()
      */
     private static function getNextRequiredMinimumPHP()
     {
-        return '5.5.9';
+        return '7.2.5';
     }
 
     private static function isUsingPhpVersionCompatibleWithNextPiwik()
diff --git a/core/Version.php b/core/Version.php
index ed20020eeb1..ce19cf8371a 100644
--- a/core/Version.php
+++ b/core/Version.php
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ final class Version
      * The current Piwik version.
      * @var string
      */
-    const VERSION = '2.18.0';
+    const VERSION = '2.18.1-b1';
 
     public function isStableVersion($version)
     {