{"id":1026815,"date":"2026-06-14T21:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026815\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:27:45","slug":"champions-northern-ireland-overcome-belgian-battlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026815\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Northern Ireland Overcome Belgian Battlers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reigning champions Northern Ireland kicked off their title defence by edging past Belgium on Saturday at the 2026 BetVictor World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dartsworldstore.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">DARTS PLAYER MERCHANDISE AND COLLECTABLES AT OUR DARTSWORLD STORE!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>INTERESTED IN GLOBAL DARTS?<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dartsworld.com\/category\/global\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<strong>Checkout DartsWorld\u2019s Dedicated Area<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following Saturday\u2019s action, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will take place during a bumper double session on Sunday, as the remaining eight nations go head-to-head for World Cup glory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2026 BetVictor World Cup of Darts is being broadcast on Sky Sports for viewers in the UK &amp; Ireland, through the PDC\u2019s international broadcast partners, including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MORE ELITE DARTS COVERAGE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dartsworld.com\/pdc-land\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Check Out Our Devoted PDC Area<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2026 BetVictor World Cup of Darts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Round Two Saturday June 13<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afternoon Session<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republic of Ireland 8-5 Poland<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Latvia 8-7 France<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(4) Scotland 8-0 Norway<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wales 8-5 USA<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evening Session<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(3) Northern Ireland 8-7 Belgium<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Germany 8-6 Czechia<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(1) England 8-5 Spain<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(2) Netherlands 8-6 Sweden<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunday June 14 Afternoon Session<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> (1300 local time) Quarter-Finals<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scotland v Republic of Ireland<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">England v Wales<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Northern Ireland v Latvia <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Netherlands v Germany<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evening Session (1900 local time)\u2028<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Semi Finals<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">England\/Wales v Scotland\/Republic of Ireland<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Netherlands\/Germany v Northern Ireland\/Latvia<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Final <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All matches best of 15 legs except the final, which is best of 21 legs<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014\u2014ENDS\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Images: Sebastian Doppstadt\/PDC and Jenny Segers\/PDC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reigning champions Northern Ireland kicked off their title defence by edging past Belgium on Saturday at the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1789,283601,22378,272081,283602,1123,226399,1113,283603,38579,1144,283604,55476,42109,16,15,55477],"class_list":["post-1026815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-belgium","tag-betvictor-world-cup-of-darts","tag-darts-news","tag-dartsworld-magazine","tag-daryl-gurney","tag-featured","tag-josh-rock","tag-latvia","tag-madars-razma","tag-modus","tag-northern-ireland","tag-northern-ireland-darts","tag-pdc","tag-red-dragon-darts","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-winmau"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116750585182630702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}