Champion Graeme McDowell faces a nervy Friday at the London Club after just his third ever defeat at the Volvo World Matchplay Championship.

It means the Ulsterman now needs to win his final group game to be certain of a place in Saturday’s Quarter Finals.

Finland’s Mikko Ilonen did the damage to McDowell as the Finn raced into a four hole lead after 10 holes but McDowell dug deep and showed why Paul McGinley insisted he went out first in the Ryder Cup singles then birdied the 11th, 13th and 15th to get back to one down with three to play.

That’s as close as he got and when McDowell missed a birdie putt on 17 and Ilonen holed out to win. The Northern Irishman plays Joost Luiten, who beat Alexander Levy 4&3 to record his second win of the week, to set up Friday’s winner take all contest in Larson Group.

Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher is out with one match remaining in the round-robin format after Pablo Larrazabal chipped in to win their contest on 18.

Spaniard Larrazabal’s tee shot on the par-five 18th went into a bunker and then sent his second into deep rough. His third shot again found deep rough to the right of the green but he chipped in from 30 yards for a birdie.

And when Gallacher missed his birdie putt the Scotsman was out. “I was five under and have played two guys that haven’t had any bogeys,” said Gallacher who failed to win a point at the Ryder Cup last month and has lost his last 10 matchplay singles contests.

“It’s not a jinx. What happened at the last is typical matchplay golf as he’s won it with a birdie without having been on the fairway.”

In the other match in Gabrielsson pool, France’s Victor Dubuisson made it two winds from two with a 3&2 triumph over Ireland’s Shane Lowry to be the first man into the knockout stages.

Comeback of the day went to the World number 5 – Sweden’s Henrik Stenson – who was eight under over his last nine holes as he came from three down after four to beat Francesco Molinari 2&1. Last year’s runners up Thongchai Jaidee lost 2&1 in the other match in the Palmer pool.

The closest of all the groups going into Friday is the McCormack pool, where all four players head into the final group match tied on two points each.

Welshman Jamie Donaldson recovered from losing to Paul Casey on Wednesday by beating Jonas Blixt 3&2, while Casey was defeated 2&1 by America’s Patrick Reed. So as Donaldson plays Reed and Blixt faces Casey it really is knockout Matchplay as this wonderful event gets better by the day…

World Match Play day two results
Victor Dubuisson (Fra) beat Shane Lowry (Ire) 3&2
Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) beat Stephen Gallacher (Sco) 1UP
Mikko Ilonen (Fin) beat Graeme McDowell (NI) 2&1
Joost Luiten (Ned) beat Alexander Levy (Fra) 4&3
Henrik Stenson (Swe) beat Francesco Molinari (Ita) 2&1
George Coetzee (SA) beat Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 2&1
Jamie Donaldson (Wal) beat Jonas Blixt (Swe) 3&2
Patrick Reed (US) beat Paul Casey (Eng) 2&1