Thomas Pieters and Alex Noren held off a spirited fightback from Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry to win the opening contest of the 2023 Hero Cup and help Continental Europe open up a 3-2 lead after Friday's four-ball matches.

Continental Europe made a dominant start to the week at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, with Pieters and Noren setting the ball rolling with a 1UP win before Thomas Detry and Antoine Rozner beat Tyrrell Hatton and Jordan Smith 2UP.

But Great Britain & Ireland hit back as Séamus Power and Robert MacIntyre secured their team's first point with a decisive 4&3 win over Sepp Straka and Adrian Meronk in the bottom match.

A roller-coaster contest between Victor Perez and Guido Migliozzi and Matt Wallace and Callum Shinkwin went all the way to the 18th, with the GB&I pair winning the final hole to tie the match and earn half a point.

Meanwhile, Richard Mansell holed a pressure putt at the last as he and Ewen Ferguson tied their match with Nicolai Højgaard and Francesco Molinari to prevent Continental Europe from stretching their lead.

europeantour.com