Reigning Champions Wales Dumped Out, Belgium thrash Netherlands and Italy pull off a major shock – 2024 World Cup of Darts Day 3 Recap

Reigning Champions Wales Dumped Out, Belgium thrash Netherlands and Italy pull off a major shock – 2024 World Cup of Darts Day 3 Recap

The knockout stages of the 2024 World Cup of Darts delivered once again as Italy stunned the former champions, reigning champions Wales were dumped out and Netherlands were thrashed by Belgium, despite a high average.

Afternoon Session

The afternoon started with a brilliant game between Czechia and Sweden. The Czech duo of Gawlas and Sedlacek broke throw at the first time of asking to take a 2-0 lead early on before the Swedes reeled off 4 consecutive legs and led 4-3 at the first break. Jeffrey De Graaf, who is making his debut this year, was unable to replicate his 120.4 average from the first group stage game but averaged a respectable 87.7, however it was his teammate Lukasiak who hit the double in 6 out of the 8 legs as Sweden booked their spot in the Quarter-Finals with a 6-8 win.

Austrian duo Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez have both struggled for form this year and were looking to gain some much needed confidence with a win over Chinese Taipei. Austria surged into a 4-0 lead thanks to a slow start from Pupo and Lu but they managed to grab the 5th leg before losing the next two as they were 6-1 down at the break. Despite the large discrepancy in the scoreline early on, the sole Asian team remaining had a respectable average at around the 85 mark and managed to narrow the final score at 8-4. Austria are looking to go one one better than they did in 2021 and become World Cup champions for the first time.

Game 3 saw the return of 2-time World Cup of Darts champions Scotland who were looking to start their tournament with a bang. Their opponents Poland were stunned however as Peter Wright and Gary Anderson got off to a brilliant start and won the first 5 legs. Scotland never needed to get out of 2nd gear as they eventually booked their place in the last 8 with a dominant 8-2 win over Ratajski and Szaganski.

Damon Heta was looking to kickstart his World Cup campaign after two sub-standard performances in the group stage, an average of 73.2 over the first two games in comparison to his teammate Simon Whitlock’s 88.4. Italy were into the knockout stages for the first time and the pair of Michelle Turetta and Massimo Della Rosa were free to attack the Aussies. They quickly established a 3-0 lead with neither Whitlock or Heta firing early on. Doubling woes continued for Australia, just 7/36 at the end of the match, as Italy pulled off one of the biggest shocks of this years tournament. It was the Non-Tour Card holder Della Rosa who eventually pinned the winning 28 checkout after both teams missed a handful of match darts.

Evening Session

Host nation Germany were looking to delight the crowd and in their way was a very strong Northern Ireland team. The game exploded into life immediately with three 180s in leg 1, finished off by Brendan Dolan in 11 darts. After the first 7 legs it was Northern Ireland who were ahead but a clutch 100 finish made sure the gap was just one. Leg 9 saw trouble on the doubles with multiple misses for Germany to clinch a crucial leg and make it 5-4, however it was ‘The History Maker’ who kept his cool to put his country into a commanding 6-3 lead. The next few legs were riddled with drama as Gabriel Clemens hit a 58 checkout to get the game back on throw at 7-6 after Northern Ireland missed two match darts. The game went to a deciding leg with Northern Ireland throwing first, they were first to a match winning finish on 156 with Josh Rock eventually pinning 56 to prevent the comeback and silence the Frankfurt crowd.

The Number 1 seeds and the favourites to lift the trophy England got their tournament kicked off against a France team who were looking to avoid an 8-0 whitewash in consecutive years. Luke Humphries was making his World Cup debut and was looking to impress from the get go. England were behind 2-1 early on but never looked back after that as they had a run of 6 consecutive legs and eventually were the victor 8-3.

Despite being the reigning World Cup of Darts champions, it was a make shift Welsh team after Gerwyn Price’s withdrawal and World no44 Jim Williams being his replacement. Croatia were coming off the back of a very impressive group stage and were looking to upset the world champions. Krcmar and Grbavac were quick out the blocks and flew into a 3-1 lead which left Wales chasing throughout the remainder of the match and they never lead again. It was a historic performance from the Croatians and a finish of 83 from Romeo Grbavac dumped Wales out in their opening game of their title defence.

Michael Van Gerwen returned to the World Cup stage for the first time since 2021, his country Netherlands were playing Belgium at the exact same stage as the previous year. Both teams were incredible in the scoring phase with all 4 players averaging 100+ after the first break, the difference being two remarkable bullseye finishes on 121 and 129 from Kim Huybrechts. Netherlands carried on power scoring through out the rest of the game with 6 180s between them, but Belgium’s doubling dominance was far too powerful as they came out 8-2 victors with a 96 average, 4 points less than there opponents.

2024 BetVictor World Cup of Darts

Last 16

Czechia 6-8 Sweden

Austria 8-4 Chinese Taipei

Scotland 8-2 Poland

Italy 8-7 Australia

Northern Ireland 8-7 Germany

England 8-3 France

Wales 6-8 Croatia

Netherlands 2-8 Belgium