WATCH: Josh Rock celebrates as Northern Ireland edge World Cup of Darts thriller over hosts Germany

Josh Rock and Brendan Dolan moved to within one win of progress in a 7-4 advantage, however, Germany battled back to force a last-leg decider.

Northern Ireland ultimately claimed success in Frankfurt – with Dolan full of praise for team-mate Rock, the latter on his debut in the tournament.

"Basically, Josh was playing on his own tonight and he was absolutely superb,” said Dolan in his post-match interview on Sky Sports. "I love him to bits for carrying me but I will turn up sometime!”

Dolan added: "Definitely tonight was a major test - to be fair to them (the crowd) they cheered Germany on but didn't go too hard on us, I respect them for that and thank them very much.

"But it was still tough here but we're glad to come through it."

Rock also made reference to the atmosphere created by the home fans.

"The heat was amazing obviously playing up on that stage...when you're against the home nation Germany it was very, very hard,” he said on Sky Sports. "The crowd was with them obviously...but that was a very, very good feeling.

Previous wins have arrived at the Eissporthalle for Northern Ireland over Switzerland (4-3) and South Africa (4-1) in Group B.

Northern Ireland will now meet England in the quarter-finals – with Sunday’s schedule also including the semi-finals and final.

England entered Saturday’s play as the tournament top seeds and defeated France by 8-3 as Luke Humphries and Michael Smith won seven of the last eight legs.