Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen - War of words, brutal nickname as teen shows true colours

Luke Littler has the opportunity to go one better than his previous attempt and win the World Darts Championships on Friday night. All he must do is beat Michael van Gerwen.

The stage is set at Alexandra Palace for a clash between titans. Warrington's teenage prodigy Littler takes on three-time winner Van Gerwen after both swept aside opponents Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey in Thursday's semi-finals.

Ally Pally will bear witness to the resumption of a great, building rivalry that has snowballed over the past calendar year, with the Sid Waddell trophy and £500k jackpot the prize for whichever competitor comes out on top.

Here, MEN Sport takes a trip down memory lane to see just how we got to this point with 'The Nuke' and 'Mighty Mike', plus how the teenager has been getting in the zone for his next challenge.

Since Littler burst onto the darts scene at last winter's World Championships, 'The Green Machine' has been a keen rival whilst competing for multiple PDC honours.

It was during the previous Ally Pally tournament the Dutchman made sure he didn't get on the hype train, stating: "I think if you look like talent-wise then I think I was slightly better [as a teenager]."

Their record since is an even split of six wins apiece from 12 meetings. 'The Nuke' came out on top in the only two meetings of the past six months, however the biggest victory fell the way of Van Gerwen, who won 10-6 in the first round of the World Matchplay in July.

Littler had been tipped to go on to achieve great things, such as going one better than the runner-up spot at the World Championships. To do so, he would have to form rivalries with and beat the existing stars - the likes of three-time winner MvG, who last February downplayed their