England\u2019s Luke Littler and Luke Humphries bagged their first win as a pair at the World Cup of Darts, as reigning champions Northern Ireland kicked off their title defence by edging past Belgium last night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day Three of the global darting festival included a colossal day of last 16 action at the Eissporthalle, as the knockout stage got underway and the four top seeded teams entered the fray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top seed England began their title bid with a hard-fought 8-5 victory over Spain, defying a stellar performance from Spanish pair Cristo Reyes and Jose Justicia, with the former producing the best individual average in the match of 102.48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Littler and Humphries racing into a 3-0 lead, Spain retaliated with a three-leg burst of their own to threaten a stunning upset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, the world number one and two pulled together to burst into a 7-4 lead, and although five match darts were spurned in the 12th leg, Littler sealed victory with an 89 outshot on double five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew we weren\u2019t going to average what we did in the Premier League,\u201d assessed Humphries, with the England duo averaging just over 94, while Spain averaged 96.13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of the way we fought back. It wasn\u2019t the worst performance in the world, but it wasn\u2019t our best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust get through that first game, and then tomorrow it feels like we can relax a little bit and play how we know we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The English duo – who notably faced a shock 8-4 defeat to Germany in last year\u2019s round two tie – secured their first victory on the World Cup stage despite a patchy display on the doubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Premier League finalists missed 20 darts at double across the contest, but scoring averages of 110.30 and 109.20 from Littler and Humphries respectively got them over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just wanted to win that game, we knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy,\u201d added Littler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know we can win on this stage together now, so tomorrow afternoon we can just throw our darts and do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
England will face last year\u2019s finalists Wales in the quarter-finals, after Jonny Clayton and Nick Kenny surged to an 8-5 victory over USA\u2019s Adam Sevada and Stowe Buntz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clayton inspired his nation to victory, taking out two 141 checkouts across the contest, before he duly wrapped up the match alongside Kenny with a 15-darter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pity there wasn\u2019t two 180s before either 141 for a nine-darter!\u201d jibed Clayton, who had an individual average just shy of a ton in the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were coming back into that game, and I was thinking, right, we\u2019re in trouble here! Thank God we both found something and got the job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t perform last year, England – We don\u2019t mind who we play, we\u2019re in the quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reigning champions Northern Ireland survived a scare to pip Belgium in a last-leg decider, winning six of the last eight legs to kick-start their title defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike De Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh struck five 180s between them to put Belgium ahead 5-2, before Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney rallied, with the latter taking out a 102 kill to knock out the Belgians in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt no stage did we think we were beaten,\u201d insisted Gurney, as Northern Ireland will take on Latvia in the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUntil the very last throw, we still believed we could win that game, and we weren\u2019t in front until we won it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat tells you we\u2019re champions. We\u2019re here to win, we\u2019re trying to go back-to-back, but now this game is over, we start afresh tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madars Razma and Valters Melderis edged past France in a thrilling last-leg decider to propel Latvia into the quarter-finals for the first time in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Latvian pair took out a 110 checkout each in consecutive legs to lead 6-5, and although France took the match to a deciding leg, Razma dispatched an accidental double-double finish to break new ground for Latvia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael van Gerwen and Gian van Veen survived a scare against Sweden in their opening match as a pair for the Netherlands, winning 8-6 to set-up a quarter-final showdown with Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutch duo stormed to a 3-0 lead, only for Jeffrey de Graaf and Oskar Lukasiak to rattle off four legs straight, with Lukasiak taking out a majestic 155 to take the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a tense middle-game, the world number three and four battled to victory, with three-time World Cup winner Van Gerwen sealing a 15-dart leg to progress to the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Host nation Germany withstood a stern Czechia fightback to triumph 8-6 and confirm their progression to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko raced into a 6-1 lead following a profligate start from Karel Sedlacek and Adam Gawlas, yet Czechia\u2019s duo reduced the deficit to 7-6 to threaten an astounding comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the German team left 44 after nine darts in the subsequent leg, with Schindler wrapping up an 11-darter to save their best for last and sprint over the finish line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scotland produced just the third whitewash victory in the World Cup knockout stage since 2023, trouncing Norway 8-0 to breeze into the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gary Anderson and Cameron Menzies – the former of which was whitewashed by the Netherlands in their opening knockout match last year – surged into a 5-0 lead with a perfect outer-ring success rate, before completing the match having only missed four darts at double between them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was nearly as perfect as I could wish for!\u201d confessed World Cup debutant Menzies, with Scotland averaging 99.37 in victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGary stood up and proved why he\u2019s a two-time World Champion and why he\u2019s the best player ever to play for Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was great, Gary was brilliant, I loved every moment of that. He took the reins of that game here and made me feel comfortable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republic of Ireland await Scotland in the quarter-finals, as World Cup ever-present William O\u2019Connor and Mickey Mansell brushed aside Poland 8-5 in a stellar display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leading 5-2, the pair let their lead slip following a three-leg burst from Polish duo Krzysztof Ratajski and Sebastian Bialecki, yet Ireland took three legs on the spin themselves to complete a tidy triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS SCHEDULE<\/strong> England\u2019s Luke Littler and Luke Humphries bagged their first win as a pair at the World Cup of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-13773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1.jpg",2000,1578,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-300x237.jpg",300,237,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-768x606.jpg",640,505,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-1024x808.jpg",640,505,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-1536x1212.jpg",1536,1212,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1.jpg",2000,1578,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026PremierLeagueNight13_FINAL_HumphriesLittler1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13774,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773\/revisions\/13774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Round Two<\/strong>
Republic of Ireland 8-5 Poland; Latvia 8-7 France; (4) Scotland 8-0 Norway; Wales 8-5 USA; (3) Northern Ireland 8-7 Belgium; Germany 8-6 Czechia; (1) England 8-5 Spain; (2) Netherlands 8-6 Sweden<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quarter-Finals
<\/strong>Scotland v Republic of Ireland
England v Wales
Northern Ireland v Latvia
Netherlands v Germany<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"