The twenty-third edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ gives you the lowdown on the Grand Slam of Darts, which is already underway in Wolverhampton. Then there’s an exciting clash between Poland and the Netherlands, as the Dutch look to secure World Cup qualification, while Poland will at least want to get their hands on a Playoff spot. And as usual, we’ll round things off with our bet of the week.
2025 Grand Slam of Darts
- Start: Ongoing, finishes 16 November
- Venue: WV Active Aldersley, Wolverhampton
- Coverage: Sky Sports
- Fun Fact: As if there aren’t enough ‘Lukes’ in darts at the moment with the two dominant players, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are developing a fantastic ongoing rivalry, a third one gatecrashed the party last year, when Martin Lukeman made the final against Littler, going down 14-3.
Betting
As has been the case for the last couple of years at the major darts tournaments, the bookies are making this something of a two-horse race between the two Lukes.
And as has often been the case since Littler first made a splash in the world of pro darts as a teenager just over two years ago, he’s the one favoured here again despite Humphries being the more experienced player, not to mention also being World Number One.
Betfred make it 2.75 that it’s Littler defending the Grand Slam of Darts title he won last year, with Humphries much bigger at 5.0.
There’s no shortage of other players with the ability to at the very least test the world champion, with Gerwyn Price (9.0) and Michael Van Gerwen (17.0) just two of the big-game players who can beat anyone on their day.
Summary
The tournament got underway on Saturday, and we’ve already seen a nine-dart finish, the equivalent of perfection in the game, by Humphries, who was as surprised as anyone when he got it:
I absolutely have no idea where that came from at the end there to be honest.
Of course, a nine-dart finish looks great, and many players will never manage one in a big tournament during their whole careers, but the bigger picture is that it may just give Humphries the confidence to think he can beat his namesake.
Littler has already done the first part by qualifying for the next round. In the first stage of this event. By winning his first two matches and other results going his way, Littler has already got his name in the draw, with Humphries and Price soon likely to join him.
But the match of the first round is surely when Michael Van Gerwen and Gary Anderson clash tomorrow night.
These two men have each won the PDC World Championship on two occasions, which tells you all you need to know about their pedigree.
Poland - Netherlands FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
- Start: Friday, 14 November at 19:45 GMT
- Venue: PGE Narodowy (National Stadium), Warsaw, Poland
- Coverage: Available on live streaming
- Fun Fact: Not many would have picked Memphis Depay as the top scorer in the history of the Dutch national football team, but he is. Depay, now at Corinthians in Brazil, recently overtook Robin van Persie’s 50 goals, the previous record, and now has 52 himself.
Betting
The Netherlands may not necessarily have a Golden Generation to call upon at the moment, but they consistently make the World Cup and Euros, generally making it to the quarter-finals at the very least. So it’s no surprise that they currently occupy sixth place in the FIFA World Rankings, which is one place below Portugal and one above Brazil, no less.
That goes some way to explaining why they’re warm favourites to beat Poland away from home in this important Group G clash.
The Netherlands are just 1.6 to win the game, with Poland at 4.2 and the draw also at a 4.2 price.
But there may be an even better reason to justify that short price on the Dutch - they’ve beaten Poland away from home in each of their last four visits here, winning 2-1, 2-0, 2-1 and 2-1. As you can see, three of those four wins were by the same 2-1 scoreline, which this time round is available at 7.5.
Goals are expected with over 2,5 goals rated at 1.64 chance and over 3.5 goals at 2.6. If you think the Netherlands will win with both teams scoring in the process, you can get 3.1 on that outcome.
Summary
Things were looking good for the Netherlands after a few minutes of their semi-final against England at last year’s Euros. They went 1-0 up courtesy of now-Spurs man Xavi Simons, who scored after just seven minutes. But a Harry Kane penalty and a late winner from Olie Watkins turned the game on its head, and it was once again a case of a near miss for the Dutch, who have only ever won Euro 88 in terms of major tournaments.
They have a strong side at the moment with the team’s core playing at many of Europe’s biggest clubs: Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, Frenkie de Jong of Barcelona, Denzel Dumfries of Inter Milan and Jurrien Timber of Arsenal. If they carry on making good progress with a nice blend of youth and experience, they could go close at next year’s World Cup.
It's not quite the same story when it comes to Poland. They’re down in 33rd in the World rankings. Considering that’s just one place above Wales and two below Panama tells you all you need to know.
As ever, much depends on skipper Robert Lewandowski, who has nine goals for the season already for Barcelona. But he is 37 years old, so they can’t keep expecting him to perform miracles. Sebastian Szymanski of Fenerbahce and Jan Bednarek of Porto are other high-quality performers.
They’ve started this campaign with four wins, a draw, and a loss from their six matches to date, trailing the Netherlands by three points. Even if they lose this match, they’ll still be three points ahead of third-placed Finland, so you’d expect them to make the Playoffs, though they could be up against a tough team in that round. We’ll have to wait and see if it’s the last time we’ve witnessed Lewandowski in action at a major tournament.
Betting Tip of the Week
It’s hard to ignore that the Netherlands have beaten Poland in each of the last four times they’ve played them away from home. As we’ve seen already, three of those were by 2-1 scorelines, so the 7.5 on offer for a repeat of that should see some business.
But a safer approach is to go for the Netherlands to win with both teams scoring in the match, which would not only include that 2-1 score but also the likes of 3-1, 3-2 or even 4-2. It’s on offer at 3.1 and looks a really good bet.
