Gian van Veen said Luke Littler was “disorganized” after beating the world number one in the Premier League darts quarter-finals in Manchester on Thursday.
Littler climbed to the top of the standings after back-to-back wins in Dublin and Berlin and was the heavy favorite at home at the AO Arena, but the 19-year-old’s hopes of winning a third successive Premier League title were prematurely ended by Van Veen.
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Quarterfinal highlights between Littler and Van Veen
Littler, a huge Manchester United fan and native of nearby Warrington, was not at his best and lost a crucial leg in a tight 6-5 loss against Dutchman Van Veen.
Van Veen has not won a match since week four of the competition and is still recovering from a kidney stone that ruled him out for Dublin. But he got his point across when he took a 4-1 lead.
Littler recovered to make it 4-3 and the chance seemed lost when Van Veen failed to hit a double to make it 5-3 and the world champions were level again.
Van Veen swelled his line towards double 15 to spark the needle between the pair, with Littler gesticulating angrily at his rival but surprisingly missing his chance.
Van Veen would not allow another visit from Littler and there was a brief handshake between the two men before the home star left the stage.
Littler taunted van Veen with a crying gesture after being accused of celebrating a missed dart.
“I’m on 90 and I miss double 15 inside and I see him celebrating towards the crowd. I don’t think that’s normal,” the 23-year-old Dutch ace said. sky sports. “And that person also made a crying gesture.
“He’s a fantastic darts player, but today he showed he’s not a good loser. It’s really annoying when he celebrates his opponent’s mistakes.
“That’s why I looked at him. The fact that he missed three darts in a double is his problem.
“He was congratulating me on missing double 15. That was wrong. I was upset about it and he missed three darts on double 7.
“Then he looked at me like I was the problem. He was probably angry.
“That’s my perspective. His perspective might be different.
“I love Luke so much. All the attention he has brought to the sport has been amazing, but today was my day.”
Mardle: Littler was caught putting his hand in the cookie jar.
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Wayne Mardle takes a closer look at what made Littler and Van Veen’s quarter-final match on fire.
“I know exactly what happened,” Mardle explained. “Van Veen got into D15 and Luke was delighted about that and said to Simon Whitlock, ‘Well done’.
“I shouldn’t have done that, but when I did that, Jian turned around and thought, ‘Why did you do that?’
“I can lip-read, but I won’t repeat what Luke said because I don’t want to hand in notice! I have to say Gian handled it better.”
Mardle later added: “Luke did something he shouldn’t have done and was congratulated for it, but he didn’t expect Gian to see him.
“He put his hand in the cookie jar. He’ll never do that again!”
Littler reacted to the controversial defeat by posting a list of TV titles with the headline “Good night, God bless, thank you Manchester” to cover Van Veen’s last 16 exit from the European Championship, where he currently reigns.
He also used three tears of joy emojis to mock Van Veen’s statement, saying Littler’s behavior was “out of place.”
What’s happening on Brighton’s 10th night of Premier League action?
The BetMGM Premier League season continues next Thursday from Night 10 in Brighton. Michael van Gerwen will take on Van Veen for the entire Netherlands.
Luke Humphries and Jonny Clayton face off in the evening’s opener, Gerwyn Price faces Josh Rock and Littler and Stephen Bunting lock horns in the quarter-finals.
Ranking points will be awarded each night to form a league table which will see the top four players advance to the finals night at the O2 in London on Thursday 28 May. The winner gets 5 points, the runner-up gets 3 points and the semi-finalist gets 2 points.
Who will be the winner of this year’s Premier League Darts? Luke Humphries is set to defend his title and you can watch it every Thursday until May on Sky Sports. Stream darts and other top sports with NOW.
