Van Gerwen after defeating Cullen in thriller: "One of my toughest games in the World Championship ever"

Michael van Gerwen is through to the Quarter-Finals of the 2020/21 PDC World Darts Championship after seeing off Joe Cullen in one of the best games ever to grace the Alexandra Palace stage.

Van Gerwen came from 3-1 down to defeat Cullen 4-3 in a sudden death leg with the latter missing two darts to dump out the World Number One.

Aptly so, Mighty Mike called it one of his toughest games in the World Championship but that he kept remembering potentially frailties in the game of Cullen after previous meetings and always had the belief as a result.

Read also

Van Gerwen produces remarkable fightback to deny Cullen in World Championship epic

"That was a really tough one. Joe made it absolutely difficult but I made it difficult as well by missing a few chances in the first set and the fourth set to win the set. When someone's playing that well, you're not allowed to do that. You have to try to fight and keep fighting and it was hard today but I managed to do it and that's a big relief off my shoulders," said Van Gerwen post match.

"When he is on it, he can be a very dangerous player but I also know when you keep putting the pressure on him and when he starts to think about going through. We saw it in the Grand Slam of Darts when he needed one more leg against me. I keep remembering things like that and I know just keep putting pressure on him because you never know you might get another chance."

"I was able to do that. It was tough, probably one of my toughest games in the World Championship ever."