The quarter final line up at the European Championship will be determined on Saturday evening when the bottom half of the draw play their second round matches on what looks like being another great session of arrers.
We’ve seen plenty of shocks but some excellent darts mixed in and around it so far in the tournament and much more of the same is expected on Saturday with the likes of Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith on show.
Vincent van der Voort vs Chris Dobey
We get underway with a couple of men who knocked off higher seeds on Friday afternoon opposing each other as Vincent van der Voort takes on Chris Dobey in a match which sees a good opportunity for one of them to make it into the quarter final.
The performance of van der Voort took everyone by surprise as not many saw it coming especially against a player like Mensur Suljovic who would have ruined the rhythm of the Dutchman, but it has to be said that Suljovic was very poor and I don’t expect Dobey to be so bad here. Dobey played well in seeing off Krzysztof Ratajski in the first round and a repeat of that will surely be enough here as van der Voort has not put successive performances in for a while. Dobey is the next big thing on the landscape and I expect him to win this one.
Michael Smith vs Stephen Bunting
The second match of the night is the St Helens derby as Michael Smith takes on Stephen Bunting in a battle of two men who haven’t had the sort of year they would have been expected when they started out on it.
Since the World Championship final, Smith has been ordinary by his standards but just recently there has been signs that he is finding his mojo once again which could be significant. Bunting had a fine win over Keegan Brown in the first round but this is a significant step up on that and he’ll need to improve if Smith maintains his quality. I expect Smith to win this but in truth he is about the right price so I’ll let him win if he is good enough.
Place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image above to bet. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Gerwyn Price vs Nathan Aspinall
The match of the night comes in the third game of the evening when the Grand Slam champion Gerwyn Price takes on the UK Open winner Nathan Aspinall in a battle between two competitive men who showed good form in the first round.
Price ultimately looked like he struggled towards the end of his first round game but I think that was just the pressure of the format and with the longer format here I expect him to deliver a much better performance for longer. Aspinall looks like he is in the mood to put up a very strong showing here so we should be in for something of a cracker. I’m on Price outright and I hope he negotiates this one as the draw has opened right up but the prices look about right to me.
Jeffrey de Zwaan vs Jermaine Wattimena
The last match of the second round of the tournament sees an all-Dutch clash as Jeffrey de Zwaan goes up against Jermaine Wattimena with one of them ending up in a rare televised quarter final at the end of it.
De Zwaan tends to thrive on the big stage and he showed that again on Friday when he saw off Peter Wright while Wattimena is slowly improving himself and looks ready to lay down a decent challenge here even though he will need to raise his game from his win over Jamie Hughes in the opening round. This is rarefied air for de Zwaan in that he won’t have been favourite to win a match on TV with this opportunity in front of him very often and it will be interesting to see how he handles that pressure. Wattimena might enjoy being the underdog in this one and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins this but nothing really takes my fancy either way.
Tips
Back C.Dobey to beat V.van der Voort for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
