Tony Drago recorded his third singles win of the 2007 PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup with a 6-4 triumph over Corey Deuel.

Debutant Drago, who defeated Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening on Saturday, continued his fantastic tournament as Europe moved two ahead for the first time this competition.

Before the final lag of the match, Europe was leading 9-7 needing two more wins to take the Cup.

Despite his performances that have seen him become arguably the player of the event so far, Drago was still criticised by Deuel, who showed a childish-like lack of sportsmanship in a post-match interview.

"I feel he (Drago) is the softest draw in his team and all the other players are better than him," said Deuel.

"He feels good but got a lot of rolls. It's only a race to six and if he played a race to 100 with his team mates then he might get 50.”

Deuel's comments followed similar remarks made by Earl Strickland on Friday criticising Drago's ability, despite his previous record of reaching the World Pool Championship semi-finals.

The European player responded in defiant fashion. "Corey I've just beaten and I've played Earl three times and beat him twice," said Drago.

"If I was a good player then imagine what I would do to them!

"This is my theatre, I'm an entertainer but in the last few years I haven't played that great after I won the World Pool Masters in 2003 and got to the semi-finals of the World Pool Championship.

"But unless we win, my good play counts for nothing."

Meanwhile, Ralf Souquet moved Europe three points ahead as the pressure got to the volatile Earl Strickland.

Souquet defeated Strickland 6-4 to give the Europeans an overall 9-6 lead but there were some ugly scenes at the end of the match.

The German celebrated his victory with his team mates and then went over to shake his opponent's hand. However, the furious American hurled abuse at Souquet and threw his hand away from him.

That led to an angry exchange as Drago screamed at Strickland, who was being booed by the crowd, before someone, either a European competitor or fan, threw a dummy at the US player.