Day Two of the 2008 Mosconi Cup at the Portomaso Conference Centre saw Team Europe and Team USA sharing the points after Matches 5 to 8 were played last night.

The climax was the clash between local favourite Tony Drago and the controversial Earl Strickland. The latter won the honours at the end of a hard-fought match but, strangely, he failed to keep the momentum going and went down heavily to Finland's Mika Immonen 5-0 in the other singles for Europe to retain their two-point advantage (5-3).

Europe took off to a flying start when Niels Feijen and Ralf Souquet hit back from 2-0 down to beat Shane van Boening and Rodney Morris 5-3 in doubles.

The next match, a singles clash of the titans, was a classic as Drago came within a whisker of silencing Strickland in a tense thriller that required all nine racks to determine a winner.

In the end, Strickland won an important point for his team when he cancelled a 2-4 deficit to beat the Maltese cueist 5-4.

The second doubles match of the night pitted together Englishman Mark Gray and Immonen with USA's Johnny Archer and Jeremy Jones.

The Europeans hardly ever got going, allowing the US to seize the initiative and win the match 5-1.

Immonen, the Iceman, was back in action a few minutes later and shocked Strickland in the first whitewash of the 2008 Mosconi Cup.

The upset did not go down well with Earl who had to be escorted out of the hall after an altercation with Immonen and Drago.

The tournament continues today with two sessions, the first starting at 3 p.m.

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