Fleetwood and Molinari continue stunning alliance with foursomes evenly poised

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Paris, September 29: Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood were on course to make history as Europe threatened to claim a commanding lead ahead of the Ryder Cup singles. Already 8-4 up after dominating a second successive session, Thomas Bjorn's men knew they could take a giant step towards regaining the trophy in Saturday's foursomes.

Molinari and Fleetwood were looking to become the first European pairing to win their first four matches together and stormed to 3 up after just six holes against Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau.

Woods, the winner of last week's Tour Championship, had already been on the losing side twice against the hosts' most prolific duo and was in danger of suffering a third defeat in as many matches.

Europe also had a slender lead in the opening foursomes contest, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose recovering from losing the first to be 1 up at the turn against Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.

However, the USA were up in two matches - winning one convincingly - as Europe's second and fourth pairings made a host of errors.

In match two, Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren were initially failing to produce their Friday form, slipping 4 down against Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson after eight. The second hole of that encounter was halved in a triple-bogey six and Noren was enduring a particularly torrid time.

There were also mistakes aplenty in the anchor match, as Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas won three holes in a row to move 1 up on Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy.

That made the projected score 10-6, but there was still plenty of time for things to change significantly.