ENGLAND EASE THROUGH! 🏴 Luke Humphries and Michael Smith breeze through to the quarter-finals with an 8-3 demolition of France in the last 16! 📺 bit.ly/24WCODLive #WorldCupofDarts | R2
"That's the scary thing. If we do click, there's no stopping us" - England see plenty of positives as they reach World Cup of Darts quarter-finals
PDCSunday, 30 June 2024 at 10:00
England easily qualified for the quarter-finals of the World Cup of Darts. Luke Humphries and Michael Smith were too strong for France 8-3 in the last 16.
For Humphries, this was his long awaited World Cup of Darts debut. "It's a little bit too warm to be honest, no Cool Hand today! It's a little bit warm," Humphries reflected in his post-match interview, referring of course, to his nickname. "Obviously tomorrow's going to be a little bit cooler. You might see a different version of me. It was tough tonight. I think all the players that play tonight are going to struggle - it's really, really warm."
"Sometimes that does affect me a little bit more than other players but I feel good. When I come back tomorrow, I'm going to be in good spirits. We'll keep the same regime," continues the current world champion and world number one. "Like Michael Smith said, we just need to play our own game, don't need to set each other up on any certain doubles. If we can click like we know we can, there's a chance for us tomorrow. We believe we can win and that's the most important thing to win big titles."
Despite the relative comfort of their win, Smith realises, however, that there is still room for improvement. "We went backstage and I said fifth gear, he said second gear! I was working backwards, he was working forwards. We were nowhere near our best, maybe 50 per cent, and we still played half decent," assesses Bullyboy. "Scoring wasn't like what me and Luke can do, we hit the doubles when we needed to. When we lost the third leg, we stepped up and it just showed what we could do. Not what we can do. That's the good thing about having Luke next to me. He's 100 times better than what he was there and I'm 100 times better. That's the scary thing. If we do click, there's no stopping us."
Luke Humphries and Michael Smith in action at the World Cup of Darts
"I felt really good - they just weren't dropping in from. I didn't feel under pressure, I didn't feel nervous. That's why I did the right thing of playing first because Michael's got the experience and we said that," Humphries adds. "He knows what it takes and played fantastic. I didn't play my best but I'm not thinking that that's going to affect me for the rest of the tournament. I know I'm going to have to play better tomorrow and I will."
"If we start playing like we can, we can be a force to be reckoned with. I didn't play my best, Michael probably didn't play his best either, but it's never going to go the way you want it to," concludes the world champion. "We're through to the next round. We don't care how we play as long as we win the tournament, that's all that matters! We'll be much, much better though I'm sure."
England takes on Northern Ireland in the quarterfinals, which eliminated home country Germany.
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