Friday 30 December 2016 07:35, UK
Phil Taylor rolled back the years to see off Kim Huybrechts and set up a mouth-watering World Championship quarter final with Raymond van Barneveld.
The Power was at his brilliant best to fight off a spirited comeback from Belgium's Huybrechts and seal a Friday night date with his old nemesis Barney, almost 10 years since their classic 2007 final.
This time they will meet for a semi-final place and with 21 titles between them, Van Barneveld took to Twitter after Taylor's win to declare the match-up darts' own version of El Clasico.
World No 1 Michael van Gerwen had to produce a brilliant performance to see off Darren Webster, while Peter Wright continued his brilliant performances at Alexandra Palace to dispatch Ian White in straight sets.
But on a night when three of the world's top four booked their place in the last eight, it was Taylor's display that had the experts waxing lyrical.
Taylor had been below par despite a 4-0 victory over Kevin Painter in the second round but he was anything but as he steamrollered Huybrechts with a performance reminiscent of The Power in his pomp.
The Belgian hit the ground running taking the first two legs, but after missing a dart for the set and a 136 finish, The Hurricane was punished as Taylor stormed back to win six of the next seven legs and move 2-0 in front.
Incredibly, he upped the ante in the third, wrapping up the set in double quick time thanks to 12, 11 and 13-dart legs to leave Huybrechts shaking his head in disbelief at Taylor's performance.
But the 13th seed from Belgium is a gritty competitor and while Taylor frittered away two match darts, Huybrechts stayed in touch to pinch the fourth set before producing his best darts of the match to claim the fifth.
Taylor composed himself and despite another seven missed darts throughout the set, he was able to wrap up only his third quarter-final appearance in the last six years and remain on course for title number 17.
Van Gerwen has already been pushed once in the tournament by Spain's Cristo Reyes who set a record for the highest average in defeat and the world No 1 needed to be at his best again to subdue Webster.
The Demolition Man from Norfolk has led MVG 6-0 in a recent tournament and had chances to claim the first set against the brilliant Dutchman, but Van Gerwen stayed strong to pinch both the first two sets by the same 3-2 scoreline.
Played at a blistering pace, Van Gerwen looked to have quelled Webster's fire with a superb third set, before Webster rallied to finally take the chances that came his way and take the set.
It could have been a similar story in the fifth as Webster, living with and matching MVG in the scoring stakes, missed darts for the set.
MVG claimed the opening leg with a brilliant 170 checkout but having seen a couple of opportunities pass him by, the Dutchman was not about to let them go again and cleaned up 62 to book his quarter-final spot.
Daryl Gurney, the lowest ranked played left in the tournament, is next for Van Gerwen as he targets world title number two to go with the 25 trophies he has already claimed this year.
Peter Wright kicked off the evening with a dominant display over Ian White, the third seed dropped his first set of the tournament but eased to a last eight date with James Wade thanks to a 4-1 victory.
Snakebite reeled off five legs on the bounce to assume control from the outset against a below-par White and he improved that run to nine from 10 to give him a 3-1 lead.
Diamond White improved in the third set, increasing his average from around 80 to just under 100 thanks to a brilliant run of three successive legs to claim the fourth set.
But it proved to be in vain as Wright wrapped up the match and a spot in the quarter-finals for the fourth year in succession, with his target to be one better than his runner-up finish of three years ago.
You can follow all of Friday's quarter-final action with Sky Sports, the afternoon session gets underway at 1pm on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports Darts, while the evening session is underway at 7pm on Sky Sports Darts.
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