diff --git a/wp-includes/class-wp.php b/wp-includes/class-wp.php
index 479c3d41e8..d136f08885 100644
--- a/wp-includes/class-wp.php
+++ b/wp-includes/class-wp.php
@@ -201,9 +201,9 @@ class WP {
 					if ( preg_match("#^$match#", $request_match, $matches) ||
 						preg_match("#^$match#", urldecode($request_match), $matches) ) {
 
-						if ( $wp_rewrite->use_verbose_page_rules && preg_match( '/pagename=\$([^&\[]+)\[([0-9]+)\]/', $query, $varmatch ) ) {
+						if ( $wp_rewrite->use_verbose_page_rules && preg_match( '/pagename=\$matches\[([0-9]+)\]/', $query, $varmatch ) ) {
 							// this is a verbose page match, lets check to be sure about it
-							if ( ! get_page_by_path( ${$varmatch[1]}[$varmatch[2]] ) )
+							if ( ! get_page_by_path( $matches[ $varmatch[1] ] ) )
 						 		continue;
 						}
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/rewrite.php b/wp-includes/rewrite.php
index ae4bd8a90b..8221b594e5 100644
--- a/wp-includes/rewrite.php
+++ b/wp-includes/rewrite.php
@@ -314,9 +314,9 @@ function url_to_postid($url) {
 
 		if ( preg_match("!^$match!", $request_match, $matches) ) {
 
-			if ( $wp_rewrite->use_verbose_page_rules && preg_match( '/pagename=\$([^&\[]+)\[([0-9]+)\]/', $query, $varmatch ) ) {
+			if ( $wp_rewrite->use_verbose_page_rules && preg_match( '/pagename=\$matches\[([0-9]+)\]/', $query, $varmatch ) ) {
 				// this is a verbose page match, lets check to be sure about it
-				if ( ! get_page_by_path( ${$varmatch[1]}[$varmatch[2]] ) )
+				if ( ! get_page_by_path( $matches[ $varmatch[1] ] ) )
 					continue;
 			}