2022 World Matchplay Final Preview - Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen

32 players came but only two remain as the PDC World Matchplay will conclude for 2022 on Sunday evening at the magnificent Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

It is the final that was heavily mooted and discussed despite Dimitri van den Bergh and Danny Noppert potentially paying heed to the excitement.

But both Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price did their bit sealing semi-final wins on Saturday night of differing quality. It has been the story of the tournament for two finalists in a way.

Price has roared through and will likely head into the final as a potential slight favourite due to his displays this week. He started off averaging 99 in a narrow win over Martin Schindler 10-8 before taking out Dave Chisnall 11-8.

It was the latter stage wins that began to show towards his A game with a 104 average against Jose de Sousa in a thrilling 16-14 win before he sealed perfection with a nine-dart finish and a comprehensive 17-11 success over Danny Noppert averaging 102.

Slowly 'The Iceman' who has never reached the final of this tournament and has not been a happy hunting ground in the past has began to find form that has deserted him at times especially through the Premier League which he admitted he wasn't a fan of in terms of the new format.

But one player who you could say was is Van Gerwen who stormed to his first major success after a long barren spell by his standards last month in Berlin and could add a title which has eluded him since 2016.

He hadn't reached the final even since then with shock defeats and last year a semi-final loss to Peter Wright. He has admitted himself throughout the week that he is not at his best owing that to surgery on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with his relatively quick return a miracle in itself.

But despite only averaging over a ton once in this tournament, it is ominous as usual for the rest of the field and in this case Price that he is winning with his B or C game and is finding the luck of the green, something which has deserted him during his barren spell.

Opening success against Adrian Lewis was followed by victories over a poor Joe Cullen, edging past Nathan Aspinall and having a late surge against Van den Bergh. It could yet play into Price's hands in terms of the closeness of his wins or MVG could fire into Beast Mode and leave Price no chance at all.

As usual between this two, it is must watch tantalising tungsten of the highest variety and over the best of 35 legs, either a new champion or a returning winner for the first time in a few years will be crowned in Blackpool.