Eur in with a shout says Faldo

Sep 21 2008 By PA

EUROPEAN captain Nick Faldo believes his side have a "great opportunity" to win a fourth straight Ryder Cup after fighting back on the second day at Valhalla.

Europe trailed by three points after the opening day but won Saturday's foursomes by 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 and shared the fourballs 2-2 to trail 9-7 going into Sunday's 12 singles matches.

It is the first time Europe have been in such a position since 1995, when they rallied from the same deficit to win by a single point at Oak Hill - Faldo himself winning a vital point against Curtis Strange after coming back from one down with two to play.

"It was an unbelievable day," said the six-time major winner and record Ryder Cup points scorer. "It was America's day on Friday, it was our's yesterday.

"We hung in there and that was the goal, to chip at that lead. There were moments it could have gone either way but the team is really upbeat. We know and believe we have a great opportunity."

Ian Poulter was the star of the show with a foursomes victory with Justin Rose and fourballs success with Graeme McDowell taking his personal points tally to three, fully vindicating Faldo's controversial decision to choose him as a wild card.

"I just told him 'I'm so proud of you'," he added.

Poulter will be out in the 10th singles match against Steve Stricker with Lee Westwood out 11th and Padraig Harrington in the final match.

"I have to look forward and hope for a really ugly game, the uglier the better. I need the most intense, pressure-filled match I can find," said Harrington, who was rested from the afternoon fourballs.

Speaking about his order for the singles, Faldo added: "It was a group effort, it's all about being comfortable. We want guys to play where they want to play and they can set their mind on it. I don't know if this has a theme to it.

"We've been in there for half an hour doing this, everyone was involved, we thought long and hard. It's been an extremely tight match so far. Padraig wanted to go last."

US captain Paul Azinger put three of his best performers out first with Anthony Kim first followed by Hunter Mahan and Justin Leonard, and said: "There was a little bit of discussion about it, I had this in my mind of how I wanted to do it and got a little bit of confirmation.

"I think it's three guys who are very aggressive, the kind I want to go first. Everything is so far so good but there's a lot up for grabs. We are not there yet.

"I'm just really happy we are in this position but if you look at their team they are probably favourites tomorrow.

"But if someone said we were going to be two points ahead I would have said that would be great. We know we have our work cut out.

"Nick did a good job of resting Lee and Sergio. We could have lost or won 3-1 in the afternoon but Steve Stricker's putt was amazing and JB Holmes and Boo Weekley coming through was incredible. I couldn't be happier with the effort the players have given so far this week.

"We took some blows, they played great. We only lost one point and we're happy about that."