The afternoon session of quarter finals in the PDC World Championship on Friday sets a decent enough standard but the evening session is set to take everything to a whole new level as arguably the four best players to have graced the planet battle it out for semi-final spots.
We might have had a number of shocks in this tournament but four legends have made it through and should put together two excellent contests for us to enjoy inside the Alexandra Palace.
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Michael van Gerwen vs Raymond Barneveld
Michael van Gerwen: Round 1 beat Christian Kist 3-1 – Ave: 106.17 180s: 4
Round 2 beat James Wilson 4-0 – Ave: 108.65 180s: 4
Round 3 beat Gerwyn Price 4-2 – Ave: 100.06 180s: 12
Raymond Barneveld: Round 1 beat Richard North 3-0 – Ave: 102.00 180s: 3
Round 2 beat Kyle Anderson 4-1 – Ave: 102.78 180s: 7
Round 3 beat Vincent van der Voort 4-1 – Ave: 101.04 180s: 5
Head to Head: 31-18 (1 draw)
The opening quarter final in the evening should be a really tasty battle when the best two Dutch players of all time do battle as Michael van Gerwen takes on Raymond Barneveld for a place in the semi-finals.
Van Gerwen oozed class in the first two rounds but despite a dozen 180s in the third round he showed a vulnerable side against Gerwyn Price which he will hope to have got out of his system for this match. The tournament cranks up a notch for the defending champion here and his finishing in particular will need to improve. He was at 33% for his doubles against Price.
Given how well some players have played in the tournament it has almost gone unnoticed how well Barneveld has played. He has been over the 100 average in all three matches, he has scored well and his finishing has been decent too. He will probably need to maintain his consistency for longer here but he’s shown he has the game to go very well in this one.
I’m already on Barneveld at 12/1 having backed him to land the quarter before a dart was thrown so I don’t need to go in on him again but I am happy to jump all over his 180s line which looks very low at 7.5. When Barneveld beat van Gerwen in this tournament two years ago he hit seven 180s in a 4-3 win and last year in the semi-final he hit 14 in a 6-2 defeat. When Barneveld beat MVG in the Champions League recently he hit eight in 15 legs. Barneveld scores well against his Dutch rival and I expect him to cover this line.
Phil Taylor vs Gary Anderson
Phil Taylor: Round 1 beat Chris Dobey 3-1 – Ave: 96.33 180s: 3
Round 2 beat Justin Pipe 4-0 – Ave: 99.37 180s: 2
Round 3 beat Keegan Brown 4-0 – Ave: 101.34 180s: 4
Gary Anderson: Round 1 beat Jeff Smith 3-0 – Ave: 100.93 180s: 7
Round 2 beat Paul Lim 4-1 – Ave: 97.46 180s: 4
Round 3 beat Steve West 4-2 – Ave: 95.26 180s: 7
Head to Head: 39-17 (3 draws)
The last of the quarter finals provides Phil Taylor with potentially his toughest test to date in the final tournament of his career when he takes on the twice champion Gary Anderson for a place in the semi-final.
Taylor hadn’t really pulled up any trees in the opening matches of the tournament but he sprung to life with one of his best performances of the year in beating Keegan Brown in the third round. The impressive thing about that win was his combination finishing and when Taylor is checking out well even now he is hard to beat.
I say this is potentially the tournament test for Taylor and that is because Gary Anderson looked injured during and after his third round win over Steve West and if that injury lingers you wonder how much of a showing he can put up here. If he is fully fit we saw in the first two rounds that his relentless scoring and excellent finishing is still around.
This match is difficult to bet on because we don’t know the physical condition of Gary Anderson. I’m already on Taylor outright so I’ll sit this one out and hope the legend can find a way to progress to another semi-final.
Tips
Back R.Barneveld – Over 7.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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