Gian van Veen came through a mental and physical battle to get the better of Michael van Gerwen in his European Championship semi-final. Not only was the youngster dealing with the pressure of vying to reach his first ever senior televised ranking final, but he was dealing with a bleeding thumb during the closing stages of the encounter.
Van Veen eventually won 11-9 against his fellow Dutchman after both players missed big darts during the clash. Speaking to ITV after the win, though, the World Youth Championship winner shed light on what he was dealing with en-route to victory.
"I'm a bit bleeding!" Van Veen admitted while showing his injured hand to the camera. "Today I've got a very heavy grip on my dart, which I love, but today it really hit me at the wrong point.
"I hold my dart here as well, so that's why I was a bit struggling on stage. This is what I used on stage and you can see all the blood spatters, and it's not ideal but I got the job done and that's what matters.
"During the game I already thought it was a problem and I've already thought I would have lost because of that, but I didn't. It was a mental battle as well, because the blood got a bit slippery as well and my dart was slipping all over the place. But I got the job done and I'm going to focus now for the final. I'm going to sort this out, hopefully it stops bleeding and then I'll be ready."
Van Veen trailed 6-3 and 7-5 against Van Gerwen, but hit a big double 18 to open up a 9-8 lead. Van Gerwen responded with a 12-dart leg to level things up once more, but the younger player held his nerve to prevail.
Three of the four semi-finalists hailed from The Netherlands, with Danny Noppert taking on England's sole representative Luke Humphries in the second semi. Noppert beat home favourite Ricardo Pietreczko in the quarters, but went 5-0 down early on in his best-of-21 semi.
World champion Luke Littler suffered an early exit from the tournament, with James Wade stopping the teenager's run. Wade had no answer to Van Veen in his quarter, though, falling to a 10-3 defeat.
"I don't think Luke played very well in comparison. I should have run away with it a little bit more than I did," Wade told ITV after his Saturday win against The Nuke. "I'm not lucky actually, I played better than him there and it's a positive to move forwards."
"Had my chances so gutted I didn't take them," Littler wrote on social media after his elimination. "Thanks Germany crowd was good to me, heading home but back to it next week."