The second day of action at the European Championship is a busy one as the first round of the tournament ends and the last 16 of it begins on a Friday that has two tantalisingly good sessions of darts for us to enjoy.
The tournament is already recovering from the shock of the number one seed Michael van Gerwen getting dumped out on the opening night which leaves Peter Wright, Mensur Suljovic and Gerwyn Price among others knowing there is an excellent opportunity waiting for them when they begin their campaigns on Friday afternoon.
First Four Matches
It is the former BDO star Jamie Hughes who will get us underway on the second day of the tournament. He meets the rising Dutch star Jermaine Wattimena before one of the more even matches of the first round as Keegan Brown faces Stephen Bunting for a place in the second round. The third match of the session looks like it could be a cracking contest as Krzysztof Ratajski meets Chris Dobey and then we reach the halfway mark in the session with the UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall taking on Steve Beaton.
Later Four Matches
The popular Austrian player Mensur Suljovic opens up the second half of the afternoon. He faces Vincent van der Voort in a serious clash of styles before the match of the first round takes to the stage. That sees the second seed Ian White taking on Michael Smith who only just crept into the competition towards the end of the qualifying campaign. Peter Wright is then up on the stage. He faces Jeffrey de Zwaan before the first round of the tournament is rounded off by Gerwyn Price taking on Ted Evetts.
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Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in this afternoon session as we round off the first round of the tournament. The first of those comes on Stephen Bunting, who I just think is a little bit too consistent for Keegan Brown. The two met in the semi-final of a European Tour event earlier in the year and Bunting came out on top in that and I fancy he’ll do that here so long as he hits his doubles. Bunting hasn’t been in bad touch recently. He had a mare getting in against Chisnall in the second round of the World Grand Prix but he’ll have no such worries here. That semi-final in June was the only time Brown has been past the last 16 of a tournament since March. Bunting should have too much here.
Ian White beat Michael Smith at the World Grand Prix recently but I fancy Smith will get a bit of revenge here. The Champions League of Darts was a big thing for Smith. He won two big matches, got his scoring back in gear and finding some confidence on the doubles and that latter part could be crucial. White is getting much better on the big stages, evidenced by the fact he is the second seed this weekend but he still has spells where he looks flat and unconvincing. Any of that here and he’ll be long gone and pretty quickly. Despite White’s excellent European Tour season and Smith’s poor year there are still seven spots between these two in the world ranking. That can play out on the stage where Smith looks a good bet at odds against.
Tips
WON – Back S.Bunting to beat K.Brown for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with Betfair
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Smith to beat I.White for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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