It is the final day of the European Darts Matchplay in Germany on Sunday when the latest champion on the European Tour will be crowned as the tournament plays down from the last 16 stage across two sessions of play.
As always the afternoon session contains the last 16 and the rest of the event will be played in the evening. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the quarter finals onwards but we’ll cover the last 16 here.
First Four Matches
We begin with the Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld who so far this week has secured his return to the World Matchplay and then beaten Michael van Gerwen. He will look to continue a positive weekend when he takes on Ryan Searle. Another Ryan will be on stage when they are done as Ryan Joyce takes on Joe Cullen before we get to the two ties of the round. The first of them sees the world champion Michael Smith going up against the young star Josh Rock before Dirk van Duijvenbode takes on Dimitri Van den Bergh.
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Later Four Matches
The second part of the afternoon gets up and running with another potential cracker when the former world champion Rob Cross goes up against a James Wade who often comes good in the month of July and is emulating that again this week. Gian van Veen was brutally good against Damon Heta on Saturday and he’ll be looking for more of the same when he takes on the sole remaining home player left in the event in Martin Schindler. Two former UK Open champions meet in the penultimate game of the afternoon when Nathan Aspinall plays Danny Noppert before we conclude with Luke Humphries looking to take a step towards another European Tour title when he faces off against Stephen Bunting.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the afternoon on Sunday with the first of those coming in the form of Josh Rock to beat the world champion Michael Smith. Rock was very convincing on Saturday, averaging 107.36 in his win over Brendan Dolan. That win was all the more impressive with it being hard to get a rhythm against Dolan whereas there is no issue with that against Smith. The world champion is playing with new bats this week after signing a merchandise deal with another manufacturer and while he wasn’t immediately inconvenienced against Keane Barry on Saturday, he wasn’t really under any pressure in that match. Rock has won their last two regular European Tour meetings so he certainly won’t fear his opponent here and I think he is a little overpriced to get his man.
You probably couldn’t argue that Gian van Veen is overpriced at 4/5 to beat Martin Schindler but he is certainly worth a bet when you consider how the young Dutch star has played this weekend so far. He saw off Christian Kist on Friday with five 180s and a 103.92 average and then superseded that on Saturday when he whitewashed Damon Heta 6-0 averaging 114.15 without missing a single dart at a double. If the Dutchman is in that sort of form here then Schindler has got his work cut out even allowing for the home crowd being behind him. Schindler just doesn’t convince me on his doubles as much as I would like him to and that leaves him vulnerable to a surging van Veen.
Tips
Back J.Rock to beat M.Smith for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with Betfred
Back G.van Veen to beat M.Schindler for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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