"Welcome to the club Jonny” - Jose de Sousa sees the funny side of Clayton's vital miscount at European Championship

Jose de Sousa pulled off a slight surprise in the opening round of the European Championship as 'the Special One' sent home the recent World Matchplay finalist Jonny Clayton 6-4.

"It was one of my best wins in Euro Tours and European Championships," said a beaming de Sousa in his post-match press conference. "Yeah he just gave me the chances in two legs he didn't play so well and I punished him."

Undoubtedly the key moment of the match came in leg 9. With the scores tied at 4-4, Clayton required 86 for the leg. Having found the single 18 first dart, Clayton took a moment to calculate before making a shocking error and pinning single 20 and the Bullseye. As Clayton celebrated he was quickly brought back down to earth by the referee's call of no score.

De Sousa probably knows better than anyone how Clayton felt in that moment. The Portuguese is famously a poor counter and in his post-match press conference, de Sousa shared some empathy with his opponent.

"I just said to him; 'Welcome to the club Jonny'," de Sousa laughs. "Look, today I was lucky but like I said I'm just happy to win, tomorrow could be another story."