Luke Littler fires brutal dig at Ricardo Pietreczko after darts star squared up to him at Belgian Open

LUKE LITTLER has responded to Ricardo Pietreczko after their spat in the Belgian Open semi-final last night.

Littler would go on to win the tournament but all the talk was dominated by his semi-final clash with Pietreczko.

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While Littler easily swept Pietreczko aside 7-3, the German furiously confronted him at the end of the match.

Pietreczko went to shake hands with Littler before putting his head close to the 17-year-old and giving him an earful.

A bemused Littler pointed at Pietreczko, known as "Pikachu" and appeared to mouth "what?" to the crowd.

After the match, Pietreczko, 29, took to Instagram to label Littler "arrogant".

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He wrote: "So I appreciated a lot that you can play such a game at such an age. But I hope that arrogance punishes him."

A cool Littler was interviewed by Sky Sports on Monday and said that his excellent world championship performance and young age has seen him become a target for the likes of Pietreczko.

And he insists his rivals now see matches against him as a "cup final".

Littler said: “That game, I don’t know what I did wrong. A lot of people were saying it was when I was on the 147 finish and I went for Treble 19.

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“I then tried to go for tops and bull because I love tops. If I had hit the tops, I would have fancied myself for the bull. I missed it.

“He let that get to him throughout the game. I had the job to do.

“Ever since I’ve burst on to the scene, I know that every player wants to beat me.

“Even my family and my manager have said, you always have to be at your A game because anyone who plays me now, it’s a cup final to them.”

Writing in a Facebook group yesterday, Littler said he had no idea what Pietreczko's beef was.

He posted: “No idea what I did wrong, no idea what he said. He said something then don’t do it again.”

Littler's mum, Lisa even weighed-in on the incident last night.

It came as darts legend Wayne Mardle agreed with a post on X saying Littler should have "put the nut" on Pietreczko.

She seemed to agree with Mardle as she posted a laughing emoji and a dartboard, alongside a lovestruck emoji, in reply.