VideoMichael van Gerwen is in the final of the European Championship darts. The Dutchman gave up a large lead against Nathan Aspinall, but in the decisive 21st leg ‘Mighty Mike’ showed his class and took the victory: 11-10. He has already won the European Championship four times (in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017) and will therefore go on for his fifth overall victory later tonight.
Van Gerwen plays in the final in Salzburg against the winner of the match between Joe Cullen and Rob Cross.
The Dutchman started phenomenally against Aspinall, the Englishman who defeated Danny Noppert in the quarterfinals. At the first break, Van Gerwen led 4-1 and after eight legs the score was 7-1. Van Gerwen was especially hard to keep up with the Englishman, number 11 in the world. That gradually changed. ‘Mighty Mike’ couldn’t find the triples so easily anymore, Aspinall gained more and more confidence and came back to 7-6.
‘The Asp’ even had chances on the double to tie the score again, but he missed. Van Gerwen threw out 90, stopping his opponent’s advance. In a nerve-racking final phase, it came down to a decisive 21st leg. In it, Van Gerwen accelerated with two 180 scores and an eleven-darter to book a ticket for the final.
Win over world champion
Van Gerwen reached the semi-final at the expense of world champion Gerwyn Price. After a high-quality game with high averages, ‘Mighty Mike’ turned out to be the strongest: 10-8.
In the run-up to the match against Price, Van Gerwen stoked the fire with lyrics such as ‘they are all afraid of me’. Price, number one in the world and world champion, seemed unimpressed and started energetically against the Dutchman. The Welshman went into the first break with a 4-1 lead.
Three-time world champion Van Gerwen recovered and fought back to 5-5. From that moment on it went straight and showed ‘Mighty Mike’ and ‘The Iceman’ to be heard at the absolute top of darts. They were phenomenal in scoring, although in the final phase the tension seemed to creep into both men.
Van Gerwen missed three darts on the double in the sixteenth leg to lead 9-7. Price came back to 8-8, but with a strong leg the current number three in the world came up match point. With a 72-finish, Van Gerwen decided against Price in his favor: 10-8.
Van Gerwen came to an average with three arrows of almost 108 points and Price was not far below that. The quarterfinal between the two (former) world champions was a feast for the eyes, with Van Gerwen and the public as the big winner.
Results quarterfinals
Danny Noppert – Nathan Aspinall 9-10
Gerwyn Price – Michael van Gerwen 8-10
Rob Cross – Jose de Sousa 10-5
Mensur Suljovic – Joe Cullen 7-10
Noppers down
Noppert was therefore eliminated in the quarterfinals. The 30-year-old Frisian delft after a true thriller lost against Aspinall: 9-10. Noppert already reached the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix last week and continued that form at the European Championship in Salzburg. He defeated Krzysztof Ratajski and Ryan Searle on his way to the quarterfinals.
Noppert, 22nd in the world ranking, took the lead twice in the match against Aspinall, but saw his opponent come back. He also made up for arrears himself, so that it came down to 9-9 on the last leg. In it, Aspinall took a big lead by throwing a score of 180. Noppert did that too, but Aspinall still took the lead by throwing out 52.
Noppert was particularly strong on the doubles (more than 69 percent), but in the final phase of the match things went less well with ‘The Freeze’. Aspinall took advantage and booked a ticket for the semi-finals. Noppert came to an average with three arrows of 99.97 points, Aspinall to more than 103 points.
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