Preview Saturday afternoon 2025 European Championship: Van Gerwen and Van Veen lead second round openers

The wheat has been separated from the chaff at the European Championship and 16 players remain in the fight for European title in the final tournament of the Euro Tour circuit.

Because what was the deal? Fourteen Euro Tour tournaments were played this season at various locations in continental Europe. Based on the results at these tournaments, a ranking was formed and only the 32 best players on the PDC European Tour Order of Merit will participate in the European Darts Championship.
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In turn, the tournament schedule is based on the final positions of the players who qualified for the European Darts Championship. As a result, it is possible that some of the top players will face each other relatively early in the tournament.

Saturday afternoon, the tournament continues with the second round. During this session it is the turn of the players at the bottom of the bracket, or in other words the players who finished their match winning last Thursday. A few big names are already missing, which included Stephen Bunting, Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price had to drop out in the opening round. Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen did win, and we will see them in action on Saturday afternoon.

Ryan Searle and Gian van Veen are the first two players who will fight for a place in the quarterfinals of this tournament. Both players managed to win in the first round from a player who is ranked higher in the world rankings.

Van Veen sent world number 12 Damon Heta home with a comfortable 6-3 victory, while Searle took advantage of a disappointing Jonny Clayton. The number six on the PDC Order of Merit was knocked out 6-3. This marks the fourth time Searle has reached the last sixteen at the European Darts Championship, but never before has he managed to reach the quarter-finals. Heavy Metal' has only reached the last eight of a PDC major three times in his career, which is a poor number for someone who has won seven Players Championship tournaments. Van Veen did advance once in Dortmund, though. In 2023, 'GVV The Giant' made it to the last four.

Seven times before these men have faced each other, and looking at the Head-to-Head, Searle has a slight advantage. He won four of the previous encounters. The last was at Players Championship 2 in February of this year. Then Searle pulled out the win 6-3.

Where many expected Gerwyn Price to be in this spot, it was Daryl Gurney who secured a spot in the eighth finals at the expense of 'The Iceman'. For the second year in a row, Gurney was 6-3 too strong for Price in the first round of the European Darts Championship, marking the third consecutive year 'Superchin' has reached the last sixteen at this tournament, where he was a semifinalist in 2017 and 2019.

Ross Smith was responsible for the exit of another former world champion, as "Smudger" triumphed 6-2 against two-time world and European champion Peter Wright. A victory that Smith can draw hope from, as the last time he defeated Wright at the European Darts Championship, he also won the tournament. That was in 2022. After that, the Englishman was less successful at the European Darts Championship, as he was eliminated in the first round in both 2023 and 2024.

This season, Gurney and Smith already met twice. First in August at the Flanders Darts Trophy in Antwerp, where Gurney narrowly won 6-5. Then they also met at the World Grand Prix. Again the Northern Irishman won, although he only had to concede one leg in two sets. In the complete head-to-head Gurney leads 7-5.

Finally, Martin Schindler got rid of that hateful zero at the European Darts Championship. The German crowd pleaser is perhaps the most consistent player on the Euro Tour over the past two years, but he traveled to Dortmund knowing that he had never won a match at this tournament. On his sixth attempt, he did manage to win a game. 'The Wall' trailed 3-0 against Dave Chisnall, but thanks to support from the German crowd the win still went 6-5 to the 29-year-old dart player from Strausberg.

The question now is whether Schindler can also make it straight to the quarterfinals, something he has not often done at a ranking major. He only managed this at the UK Open and the World Grand Prix in 2023, and that is actually before the period when Schindler really broke through by winning his first Euro Tour titles. With Ryan Joyce he meets a dangerous opponent, who can make it very difficult for any world class player. Relentless' is very strong on the doubles, but sometimes lacks in scoring. For Joyce, it is his debut at the European Darts Championship, but it would not be the first time he would make the quarterfinals of a PDC major. He was a surprising quarterfinalist at the 2019 World Darts Championship, and has also been in the last four at the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship Finals.

Joyce and Schindler have met several times in recent years. Four times the victory went to Schindler, and three times Joyce won. The most recent encounter was at the Hungarian Darts Trophy in September. Then the spoils were a 6-2 win for Schindler.

Michael van Gerwen's tournament briefly hung by a thread Thursday night. After missing three match darts himself in the tenth leg of his match against Wessel Nijman, it was Nijman himself who left seven match darts unused in the leg-decider to knock Van Gerwen out of the tournament. After Nijman's fumbling, as 'Mighty Mike' himself called it afterwards, he struck mercilessly with a 70 finish for a spot in the second round of this tournament.

By now it has been a while since Van Gerwen got to lift the trophy at the European Championship. From 2014 to 2017, the three-time world champion was the best at this event four times in a row, but after that Van Gerwen made it to the European Championship final only once. He succeeded in 2021, when he eventually lost to Rob Cross in the final match. Saturday afternoon Van Gerwen will face Chris Dobey, one of the standouts of the first round. 'Hollywood' saw opponent Stephen Bunting throw an average of 109.20, but Dobey had great timing and despite a lower average (105.76) pulled off a 6-3 win.

Dobey has competed in the European Darts Championship five times before, reaching the semifinals in 2022 and the quarterfinals in Dortmund a year later. Last year, the darter from Bedlington lost in the first round, putting Dobey at least one round ahead of 2024. In the Head to Head, Dobey is a street length behind his Dutch rival. No fewer than 22 of the 28 previous encounters were won by Van Gerwen. The player from Vlijmen has now been unbeaten against 'Hollywood' for five matches in a row.