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.

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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.

A rivalry grows

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 potential friction would be anything 'special'.

"That's not true, [facing Littler] is not special," he responded to a suggestion made at the Berlin night of last year's Premier League.

"It's not special because we're going to have finals like this another 10 times this year. I mean, we play each other so many times that it's not going to be special."

And about the same time, asked if the boy from Warrington was his 'greatest rival', he simply answered: "Not really, I keep beating him!"

Brutal nickname

A huge part of last year's World Championships and darts fans falling head over heels with Littler, his performances and his personality was the way he celebrated the victories on his run to the final with Luke Humphries.

After each match, the then-16-year-old would share snaps of himself tucking into his favourite takeaway - a kebab.

This lead Van Gerwen to brutally nickname the prodigy 'kebab boy', though he would insist the duo had a 'good relationship', without having really had the opportunity to get to know one another personally by that stage.

Littler shows true colours

By the time they take to the oche tonight, both players will have had barely 24 hours to prepare for tonight's final. Van Gerwen's semi-final vs Chris Dobey started at 7:40pm on Thursday whilst Littler only got going against Stephen Bunting after that first match.

The teen sensation has made sure he is in the correct frame of mind ahead of the final and according to The Mirror, did so by snubbing a place in the designated players' Hilton Hotel overnight so that he could stick with his family at their apartment in London, rented whilst he competes at the World Championships.

Another constant throughout his short career so far is just how close he is with his close relatives. Littler's mother and father can be seen at every match he competes in, and from the £1m+ wealth he has earned over the past year has helped move his family into a new £6k-per-month five-bedroom house on Warrington's Millionaire's Row.