Belgians set sights on Australian defending champions after win over Netherlands: ''Payback time''

Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts proved on Saturday night that Belgium should be taken into account at the World Cup of Darts. After a decisive leg, they brought the Dutch duo Danny Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode to their knees 8-7.

Much has already been written about the Belgian team this week. Things did not go well at all between Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts during the first group match on Thursday and the Belgians completely ignored each other. A mediation meeting took place on Friday, after which they showed improvement during their second match and tried to cheer each other up. Also in their match against the Netherlands, the two Belgians were fanatical with each other and, on the face of it, all seemed well again.

After their victory, the Belgians appeared collectively with a big smile at Belgian broadcaster VTM for an interview. "We showed as a nation what we can do. We were super under pressure. We were ahead, behind, but Kim spoke courage to me. Kim kept banging, I jumped in with him. But it's scary what we did,'' Van den Bergh said in a first reaction.

Huybrechts then stood by his teammate. ''We do eliminate one of the top favourites here. Van Duijvenbode was throwing like no other. I often thought: 'Dirk stop it', he was really outstanding.' Huybrechts then immediately set his sights on the next match against Australia. ''Now we have to keep going. It's the ultimate revenge for last year. Payback time'', he was referring to the defeat against Australian duo Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock in the quarter-finals of the 2022 edition.

For now, the elder of the two Belgians made it clear once again that the folds between them have been smoothed out for the time being. "We were a team again, otherwise you don't win this match against the Netherlands"