Live Darts on Sunday | European Darts Championship 2025 Day Four Preview and Order of Play
The final eight do battle in Dortmund as the 2025 European Darts Championship draws to a close on Sunday.
A £120,000 top prize is on offer at the Westfalenhallen as four of the world’s top ten and a further four in-form contenders compete for glory.
The afternoon session plays host to the quarter-final ties, before the semi-finals and final follow in the evening session in front of a crowd of over 7,000.
James Wade is one of two former European Champions left standing in the field, and the 2018 winner looks to follow up Saturday night’s heroics when he takes on world number one Luke Humphries.
Wade completed a first televised triumph over his nemesis Luke Littler in the Last 16 to reach the quarter-finals of this event for the seventh time since competing in the inaugural European Championship back in 2008.
Runner-up in this year’s UK Open and World Matchplay, the 42-year-old is vying for his 11th major title, with his most recent coming at the 2021 UK Open – where he defeated Humphries in the final.
Humphries has fallen at the quarter-final hurdle in each of his last three appearances in this event and will be keen to stop the rot and avenge March’s UK Open quarter-final defeat to Wade in a deciding leg.
With Littler having bowed out, Humphries is guaranteed to remain world number one beyond this weekend, and after averaging 110 in a 6-0 whitewash of Krzysztof Ratajski, he then battled back from 8-6 down to edge out Cameron Menzies 10-9 in a contrastingly close contest.
Meanwhile, Michael van Gerwen continues his quest for a record-extending fifth European Championship title with a tie against two-time major winner Daryl Gurney.
Van Gerwen is appearing in his first major televised ranking quarter-final since finishing runner-up in the World Championship in January, having survived seven match darts from a wasteful Wessel Nijman in round one before brushing aside Chris Dobey 10-5 with a 100.7 average.
The World Series Finals champion has also claimed the German Darts Grand Prix title this year and has won 27 of his previous 40 meetings with Gurney in all competitions.
Gurney finds himself in a first televised ranking quarter-final since the 2023 World Matchplay after punishing dismal displays on the doubles from both Gerwyn Price and Ross Smith.
The World Cup of Darts winner has averaged 90.5 and 92.5 in his opening two matches this week and will be keen to raise his game accordingly as he eyes a first major ranking semi-final in five years.
Home hopes rest on the shoulders of Ricardo Pietreczko as he aims to delight the partisan German crowd once again by overcoming in-form Danny Noppert.
Pietreczko has already put European Tour event winner Niko Springer and two-time Players Championship winner Jermaine Wattimena to the sword this weekend to climb into the world’s top 32.
The former German Championship winner is now eyeing revenge over Noppert after an agonising 10-9 defeat at this stage of the competition 12 months ago.
Noppert has maintained his remarkable consistency in the European Championship, reaching the Last Eight for the fifth consecutive year courtesy of wins over two-time champion Rob Cross and top seed Nathan Aspinall.
The former UK Open champion is now targeting a place in a third major ranking semi-final of 2025 to add to the World Masters and World Grand Prix.
The opening match of the afternoon sees World Youth Champion Gian van Veen take on European Darts Trophy finalist Ryan Joyce.
Van Veen has proved arguably the stand-out performer of the week so far, dispatching Damon Heta 6-3 before averaging 110 in a 10-2 demolition of Ryan Searle.
The 23-year-old has made it three quarter-finals in his last four televised ranking tournaments and is aiming to replicate his landmark run to the semi-finals here two years ago.
Joyce, meanwhile, has enjoyed a dream debut so far, overcoming Luke Woodhouse 6-3 before silencing the partisan home crowd by ousting German number one Martin Schindler with a 10-7 success on Saturday.
The world number 24 now has his sights set on a third major ranking semi-final since 2023 as he continues to chase down a place in the world’s top 16.
The action gets under way from 12pm GMT, with quarter-finals to be contested over the best of 19 legs and semi-finals and the final best of 21.
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European Darts Championship 2025 Day Four Schedule of Play
All times GMT (local time +1 hour)
Sunday October 26
Afternoon Session (11.45am-4pm)
Quarter-Finals
Ryan Joyce v Gian van Veen
Michael van Gerwen v Daryl Gurney
Danny Noppert v Ricardo Pietreczko
James Wade v Luke Humphries
Evening Session (6pm-10pm)
Semi-Finals
Joyce/Van Veen v Van Gerwen/Gurney
Noppert/Pietreczko v Wade/Humphries
Final
