Two teams are into the Last 16 draw later on at the World Cup of Darts with Belgium and Philippines set to join the big names in Frankfurt.
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To start the evening, Belgium who put their differences aside to bring back the camaraderie after a talks behind closed doors emerged victorious but not without a scare from Chinese duo, Lihao Wen and Xioachen Zong.
It was a 4-3 win in the end for Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts, with a clutch 86 checkout in the decider to edge through. It was all academic though anyway with Belgium only needing one leg to move through in the first place.
While Czech Republic in a meeting of two teams who have always offered so much on paper but not delivered were dumped out by Philippines in the first winner takes all.
The duo of Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan were superb sealing a 4-1 win over Adam Gawlas and Karel Sedlacek. It was a cohesive display as Ilagan scored and Perez finished expertly.
Gawlas missed 86 on the bull to hold but Perez missed two darts to break and Evil Charlie returned to send Czech Republic into the lead.
Perez levelled it up for Philippines with a 48 checkout. He hit double 16 again to break for 2-1. An 86 checkout on the bull saw Perez bring them one leg away.
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Perez again was the man to seal it as he hit a 50 checkout using 10, double 20 to move through.
Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of DartsNews.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy across professional darts coverage. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces, playing a central role in the development and daily operation of the site.
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