Michael van Gerwen vs Andrew Gilding predictions: Goldfinger can make it tough for Mighty Mike
- Michael van Gerwen is a four-time finalist and three-time World Matchplay winner
- Andrew Gilding had won one match in four trips to Blackpool before this week
- Recommended bet: Andrew Gilding +4.5 legs
Andrew Gilding has beaten a former world champion to reach the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay for the first time but will now have to claim the scalp of another, Michael van Gerwen, if he is to make the semis.
Gilding has produced high-class moments and sublime finishing to get the better of first Peter Wright and then Krzysztof Ratajski and is aware he will have to improve again to see off the Green Machine.
Van Gerwen came to the Winter Gardens with a squiggle by his name but wins over superstar Luke Littler and dangerous Joe Cullen have got the Dutchman believing a fourth Matchplay crown if there for the taking.
The stats
Three-time Matchplay winner Van Gerwen has reached the semis or better in Blackpool on six occasions since 2013.
Van Gerwen boasts a 7-2 head-to-head advantage over Gilding, though in TV majors the record stands at 1-1.
Gilding is averaging an impressive 52% on his checkouts with 21 hit from 40 attempts. Van Gerwen is at 44% with 21 of 48 hit.
The Englishman had won just one match — against Mervyn King in 2015 — in four previous starts at the Matchplay.
Prediction
Common sense says Van Gerwen, the three-time champion, former world No.1 and not so long ago the undisputed best player on the planet, has far too much for unseeded Gilding in their best-of-31 legs World Matchplay quarter-final.
The Winter Gardens is where Van Gerwen has delivered some of his finest hours and many will think he's a good thing at 1/6 with LiveScore Bet.
Gilding, in contrast, had turned up to Blackpool four times before this year and managed just a solitary win, which came nine years ago.
He was, respectfully, the dictionary definition of the journeyman arrowsmith.
But that all changed last year when Gilding stunned the darting world by winning a major title, the UK Open, beating Van Gerwen 11-10 in the final, proving to himself if no one else that he belonged among the big boys.
And he has proven it again this week with a 10-5 win over Wright and an 11-5 victory over Ratajski, two impressive efforts built on consistent scoring and deadly finishing.
He will need to sustain those levels to trouble Van Gerwen in what is new territory for Goldfinger and he will not have too many backers at 4/1 with LiveScore Bet.
But the truth is that Van Gerwen is not at his sky-high best, does go through lean patches in games and can throw away legs. His matches against Gilding have a historic tendency to be tight and they have met once this year, at the Baltic Sea Open where the Dutchman won 6-5.
Van Gerwen ought to get up but Gilding will not crumble and can cover a 4.5 leg handicap at odds of 11/10 with LiveScore Bet.
