The World Cup of Darts leaves the group stage behind on Saturday and heads towards the knockout element of the tournament as the last 16 is played out across two sessions of doubles play out in Frankfurt.
As well as it being the day that the knockout stage of the competition begins, Saturday is also the day where the four top seeded nations come into the tournament which should add to the quality of what has been a decent event so far.
Afternoon Session
The last 16 begins with a competitive looking clash between two sides who have a huge opportunity to make the final day of the tournament when France, led by Thibault Tricole, go up against Devon Petersen and his South Africa pairing for a place in the last eight. Two more unseeded nations meet in the second match of the afternoon when the lowly ranked Sweden take on one of our outright bets in Canada who came through their group comfortably enough.
The defending champions Australia have made it through to the knockout stage and they will look to make it through to the quarter final at the expense of Croatia who have already battled hard to reach this stage and won’t want to bow out tamely now. The pick of the afternoon matches is saved for last as the first of the top seeds to enter the tournament take to the stage when the former champions Scotland go up against a dangerous Philippines side.
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Evening Session
It is big names all the way in the evening session as you would expect with the former champions Wales the first of the seeded sides to grace the stage for what should be a good night of darts. They go up against a Denmark side who looked awesome on Thursday evening but not quite so on Friday. England will then get their campaign up and running in the second match of the night. They go up against a Latvia side who really should be perfect opposition for them to open up against.
The pick of the matches in the last 16 is saved for the penultimate match of the day when the Netherlands open up their campaign against a Belgium side who have had more troubles within their partnership so far than they have taking care of the opposition in front of them. The final match of the night sees the host nation Germany looking to make it through to the quarter finals. A dangerous Poland side stand in their way.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the third day of the tournament and they come in the first and last matches of the day. The opening bet comes in the form of South Africa to beat France. I think what we have seen in a lot of the matches this week so far is that the team with the best player of the quartet on the stage is having a real advantage and I think South Africa have that advantage in the form of Devon Petersen, who looked like he was coming into some nice form in the second game on Friday night. France did well to come through but Northern Ireland put in a terrible performance against them and Ukraine were never going to be good enough to beat them. If Petersen’s partner can just be solid then the former title winner can lead his country to the quarter finals.
The other bet I like is for Poland to beat Germany. Poland set the record for pairs average in this tournament when they took Lithuania to the cleaners on Friday evening and that was a perfectly competent Lithuania team too. Poland have previously delivered the goods over Portugal who had Jose de Sousa throwing for them so the group form of the Poles holds its own. I’m not sure we can say that about the Germans. They had a dream draw and while to be fair to them they took full advantage of it but they are going to need more if they are to win this one. That isn’t to say it isn’t in there and they can’t bring it out but there looked a real assurance in the display of the two Krzysztof’s on Friday. They won’t repeat that level over a 15 leg match but if they find a five leg burst anything close to as good as that in this match then it will blow the contest right open for them to go and win.
Tips
Back South Africa to beat France for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Coral
Back Poland to beat Germany for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
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