It is the final day of the European Championship in Dortmund on Sunday when as ever in these ITV tournaments the quarter finals, semi-finals and the final will be played out on a bumper day of darts in the German city.
We have four good quarter finals to get stuck into and they will be previewed below. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to cover the semi-finals and final in the evening but our outright bet is still in the competition so hopefully he can progress and given us an interest later in the event.
Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Danny Noppert
The opening quarter final is an all-Dutch affair as Dirk van Duijvenbode continues his search of a first TV title when he takes on the UK Open champion Danny Noppert, who can be tough to stop when he gets to this stage of a tournament.
You get the feeling that this match is in the right arm of van Duijvenbode. He is highly likely to outscore his countryman so the outcome of this one could be how he performs on the outer ring. If he is acceptable on the checkouts he could well be hard to beat. Noppert knows how to hang tough though and he beat van Duijvenbode 10-2 at this stage of the UK Open earlier in the year so he knows he has the beating of his man here. This should be an entertaining start to the day but I can’t find a way in that I’m confident with that is any sort of price so I’ll leave this one alone.
Luke Humphries vs Michael Smith
The pick of the quarter finals is the second one which will take to the stage as the number one seed Luke Humphries takes on a man in Michael Smith who started the year in the world final and will look to feature in the European one later in the day.
Humphries has held himself together well this week and carried the number one seeding with the merit and quality that it deserves but he has a tough test on his hands here. Smith has already come through a battle with one of the young stars of the sport when he took care of Josh Rock in the second round on Saturday and that should stand him in good stead here. There is no doubt that Humphries is much improved this year but I’m not convinced he should be odds on to take care of Smith. Just on experience grounds Smith should be the favourite for this one for me but I respect the test Humphries will provide and as Smith is my outright bet I’ll let that ride for interest in this one.
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Chris Dobey vs Dave Chisnall
The penultimate quarter final of the day sees two men who will be looking to go a step closer to a first TV title meeting when Chris Dobey takes on the form horse Dave Chisnall for a place in the semi-final in the evening.
Dobey has took care of two major champions this weekend already in Michael van Gerwen and Jose de Sousa and he’ll be eyeing up a win over a man who has done all but win a major. Chisnall has overcome a couple of class acts himself in Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton but against the latter he looked decidedly indifferent and for much of the match spent his scoring darts throwing at the treble 19 so poor was he on the treble 20. That suggests to me that the throw of Chisnall isn’t quite firing on all cylinders this weekend and that will give Dobey plenty of hope. Dobey has beaten MVG and de Sousa with a 100 average and a 96 and has really held his nerve well in key moments. I think he is overpriced to come through this one.
Peter Wright vs Ross Smith
The last of the quarter finals sees the world champion Peter Wright looking to make it through to another semi-final in this tournament when he goes up against the surprise package of the week so far in Ross Smith.
Wright has looked back to his best this week, which wasn’t guaranteed heading into the tournament as he had been a little inconsistent but he now looks the man to beat. To be fair, Smith has played really well as well. He has taken care of Joe Cullen and Dimitri Van den Bergh with a bit in hand so he is entitled to feel confident about his chances in this match. He hasn’t made a major semi-final in the PDC so he will be treading new territory here which puts me off getting involved in this one. I think if you was to bet you would have to side with Wright but he is plenty short enough as you would expect.
Tips
Back C.Dobey to beat D.Chisnall for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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