The second round of the European Championship forms the menu for day three of the tournament out in Salzburg on Saturday, a day which carries two sessions of play which by the end we will know the quarter finalists for the event.
By and large the bigger names who qualified have made it through to this stage with the exception of the defending champion Peter Wright so there should be plenty of quality on offer now that we move up to the best of 19 legs.
Afternoon Session
One of the relatively unknown players to have made it through gets us underway on Saturday afternoon when William Borland will look to build on his win over Simon Whitlock in the opening round as he takes on Joe Cullen. When they are done Brendan Dolan will meet Rob Cross, who needs a win here because he is defending the title winning money on the order of merit from two years ago. The clash of the afternoon comes in the third match in the session as Jose de Sousa takes on Luke Humphries before we round off the first part of the action on Saturday with the confidence Ryan Searle taking on Danny Noppert who is in good form.
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Evening Session
We have a lit up evening session to enjoy on Saturday and it gets underway with what should be a decent clash between Nathan Aspinall and Damon Heta. When they have settled their differences it will be the turn of the world number one Gerwyn Price to take to the stage. He takes on the Czech star Adam Gawlas before the tie of the last 16 takes place when Michael van Gerwen meets James Wade. The home favourite Mensur Suljovic is last onto the stage. He’ll go in search of a quarter final spot when he meets Florian Hempel, who will be aiming to build on beating Peter Wright in the first round.
Betting
There isn’t a whole lot which floats my boat over the course of the day. Form players are either playing each other with the prices reflective of the fact, or they are playing one of the minnows and are having to cover handicaps bigger than I would like them to need to. There is one bet which I like though which comes in the afternoon session as Jose de Sousa takes on our pre-tournament pick Luke Humphries in a good looking match.
I’m not going to sway away from Humphries who I expect to kick on now that the format has increased. That certainly happened in the World Grand Prix and although he lost at this stage of that event he played very well but lost to a brilliant Ryan Searle. Jose de Sousa also went in that round of the Leicester event but it has been a while since he has genuinely played well and although his class is there for all to see, his confidence doesn’t look as good and there is talk that he is having one or two health issues too. Humphries has no such problems and if the longer format allows his doubles to click better I fancy him to come through here.
Tips
Back L.Humphries to beat J.de Sousa for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with 888sport
Back him here:
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