The knockout stages of the World Cup of Darts gets underway with the last 16 on Saturday with the whole round being played out across two session of pairs darts out in Frankfurt as the tournament ticks over to a third day.
Saturday is the day that the seeded nations come into the tournament on a day where we will see the likes of Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith for the first time. We move the format up to the best of 15 legs now too.
Afternoon Session
We get underway on Saturday with a pair of matches that don’t involve seeded sides with the opener to the last 16 seeing an impressive Sweden outfit so far going up against a better looking Czechia on paper but a team who will need to improve on what they showed in the group stage. When they are done Austria look to make it into the quarter finals when they take on the lowest ranked team left in the competition in the form of the debutants Chinese Taipei. The first seeded nation to take to the stage are Scotland and they will do so in the third match of the afternoon as Peter Wright and Gary Anderson open up their campaign against Poland. The afternoon session concludes with the 2022 champions Australia meeting Italy.
Evening Session
The last of the matches without a seeded team in it opens up the evening session on Saturday when the host nation Germany hopes to strengthen what they hope will be a good few hours for German sport when they clash with the football team in Euro 2024 as they take on Northern Ireland for a spot in the quarter final. The last two world champions will be on the stage in the second match of the night as England take on the quarter finalists of last year in France. Wales get their title defence underway in the penultimate game of the day when Croatia are their opponents. We conclude the day with the tie of the second round as the former champions Netherlands start their campaign against a dangerous Belgium side.
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Betting
Two bets jump out at me on Saturday and they come in the first and last matches of the day. The first one is for Sweden to get the better of Czechia. I’m a little surprised that Sweden aren’t shorter than they are because of the four players between these two nations Jeffrey de Graaf has been comfortably the best. The big problem for the Czechs has been their finishing. They have been very poor on the doubles and it has been a two way thing. Adam Gawlas is 3/17 on the doubles this week and Karel Sedlacek is 5/21 and that ratio doesn’t get them anywhere against decent sides. They have averaged 77.48 and 73.32 to date whereas Sweden have put in averages of 98.56 and 82.17 and are 8/18 on the doubles combined. Unless there is a big improvement in the Czechs, which their individual form this season suggests is unlikely, I expect Sweden to get the day off to a winning start.
The other bet which is impossible to ignore is Belgium to beat the Netherlands. We know all about the Belgian pair of Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts not liking each other but it hasn’t shown on the stage this week. They have averaged 87.24 and 95.43 this week and are 8/13 on the doubles and those are statistics that will make them tough for anyone to beat. They have also had the advantage of a couple of nights on the stage whereas the Netherlands will be stepping onto it for the first time. There are one or two doubts over how fit Michael van Gerwen is and Danny Noppert might not be able to carry him. At 19/10 the Belgians are the value here.
Tips
Back Sweden to beat Czechia for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back them here:
Back Belgium to beat Netherlands for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with Unibet
