Continental Europe will take a two-point lead into the Sunday singles at the inaugural Hero Cup after extending their overnight advantage against Great Britain & Ireland in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
The European team, who prevailed 3-2 on opening day on Friday, sit in pole position for the title at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, leading 8.5-6.5 following the third of four sessions.
On Saturday, both teams took 2.5 points in the morning's foursomes, before Europe edged further ahead in the afternoon in the same format, triumphing 3-2.
Captain Francesco Molinari led from the front, the Italian and partner Nicolas Hojgaard paired together for a second successive day and delivering another two points to go with their half on Friday. In the afternoon foursomes, they defeated Ewen Ferguson and Richard Mansell 2&1.
Looking ahead to Sunday singles, which features 10 matches, Molinari said: “We need to win tomorrow’s session. We’ve done a great job winning two sessions out of three, and halving the other one. So we need to go out and win the session.
“Two points is nothing. We have been in situations where much bigger margins were eroded. But I’ve got full trust and confidence in all the other nine guys, so I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon, Thomas Detry holed a lengthy birdie putt on the penultimate hole to put him and Sepp Straka one up on Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton, with the Europeans holding on.
In the team’s other success, Victor Perez and Guido Migliozzi ended Robert MacIntyre’s 100 per cent record with a 2&1 triumph over the Scot and Ireland's Seamus Power.
However, GB&I captain Tommy Fleetwood excelled on Saturday, sealing two wins. The Englishman, a two-time winner of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship around the same National Course, partnered Hatton to see off Straka and Detry in a morning session on the final hole. Fleetwood returned in the afternoon alongside Jordan Smith to register a 2&1 victory over Alex Noren and Thomas Pieters.
Team GB&I’s other point in the afternoon came from Callum Shinkwin and Matt Wallace, who secured a 2&1 win over Antoine Rozner and Adrian Meronk.
Speaking once the day’s play was complete, Fleetwood said: “In the morning, there was some amazing golf played, and literally as guys start fatiguing and they have to get themselves back up for the afternoon, the standard of golf changes and it’s more mistakes.
"It’s really important to keep your body language up and push all the way to the end. I was proud of how our guys did that.
“A couple of matches could have gone either way. We ended the day two points behind, but two points behind is fine and we have a full singles session to go. We can reflect on today and we’ll all sit in the team room, and we’ll be talking about our rounds and everything, but overall we go out and get a fast start tomorrow, we’re straight back in the game.”
