Luke Littler hopes England can emulate his World Cup-winning feat

Luke Littler wants England to follow in his footsteps by winning the World Cup.

Littler paired up with compatriot Luke Humphries to win darts’ version of the global tournament, beating the Netherlands in the final in Germany a fortnight ago.

The 19-year-old is in New York for the World Series event at Madison Square Garden, where he finished runner-up to Humphries on Friday night, and has tickets to watch England’s Group L finale against Panama at the MetLife Stadium.

The back-to-back world champion went into England’s camp during the March window and hosted the ‘Three Lions Darts Championship’ and was gifted tickets to the match by FIFA.

Littler, who will also attend the boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night, said: “Me and Luke have done our job and now it is down to the England boys.

“We are obviously massive football fans.

“Is it coming home? We don’t know just yet, but hopefully we can get that win on Saturday.

“I am hoping we can go three or four nil up so I can ‘back-door it’ and miss the traffic because I’ve got to go to the Barclays Center to watch the boxing.”

While Madison Square Garden turned into Alexandra Palace with thousands of England fans going to watch the World Series event across Thursday and Friday night, England’s World Cup opener in Dallas also had Ally Pally vibes.

The Football Association submitted famous darts anthem ‘Chase the Sun’ as one of their songs to be played when England score during the World Cup.

It got plenty of airing during the opening match against Croatia and despite hearing it thousands of times during his brief career, Littler fancies hearing it a few times more during the Panama match at the MetLife Stadium.

“I didn’t have any part in it being chosen, but it’s good to see,” he added.

“It’s the main song in darts and hopefully we can score a few goals and celebrate.”