2025 WCOD Friday Afternoon Preview & Tips – JP
2025 WCOD Friday Afternoon Preview
If you haven’t read James Punt’s in depth outright World Cup Of Darts preview, you can see that here. His 2025 WCOD Friday Afternoon preview and tips are below.
France vs. Lithuania
Lithuania lost 1-4 to Sweden last night but they, or I should say Labanauskas, played well. He was let down by his teammate who was pretty useless. Sweden were very good on the doubles, Lithuania terrible. They missed six from seven chances. But for that it would have been much closer.
If Lucky D can play much the same way today, he can make a match of this, and surely Mindaugas Barauskas can’t be that bad again? Just hit a couple of doubles.
In the match with Sweden it just seemed to fall to the worst player to hit the important sores. He couldn’t check out 47 to win the second leg, he did checkout 19, in three darts, to win the fourth leg and by this stage Barauskas had woken up and started making a contribution, hitting a couple of 140s, but before then he had averaged 49 for his first six throws. It was too little too late. Perhaps, having played a match, he will be a bit more relaxed and can get into the match earlier.
No Great Shakes
France are no great shakes. Tricole is averaging 89.42 in 2025 and has played below that level in eight of his last ten matches. Labre averages 81.86 in 2025. Tricole played in one of the worst matches in Euro Tour history when missing 26 doubles against Joe Cullen in April.
France won their group last year but in their second match they averaged 74.56 against Denmark and fell over the line 4-3. They are not a team to be feared. Lucky D is the best player in the match and if he can just get a bit more support from Barauskas, Lithuania are in with a decent chance.
2025 WCOD Friday Afternoon Tip: 1 point Lithuania to win @ 2.28 with Livescorebet
Gibraltar vs. China
Surely a nation of 1,416,096,094 can find a couple of darts players good enough to beat Gibraltar? Maybe not. China have played in nine WCoDs and made the second round once. They have failed to get out of the group stage since the latest format came into effect. They did manage to beat Guyana 4-2 in last year’s group stage, but Gibraltar are darting titans compared to Guyana.
Gibraltar have played in every WCoD, and only once progressed to the second round. Hewitt and Galliano have represented Gibraltar for the last three years. Since we switched to the group stage format, they have finished second on both occasions. Last year they beat Spain 4-3 and in 2023 they beat Guyana 4-1.
I have to give Gibraltar a chance against the world’s biggest underachievers in the world of darts, China.
