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Continental Europe claimed victory in the inaugural Hero Cup after extending their lead over Great Britain and Ireland to four points on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n Tommy Fleetwood’s Great Britain and Ireland side trailed by two points heading into the final day at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Europe won six of the final 10 singles matches to triumph 14\u00bd-10\u00bd.<\/span><\/p>\n Poland’s Adrian Meronk holed the decisive putt in his one up victory over Englishman Callum Shinkwin.<\/span><\/p>\n “We obviously came here to win and wanted to do it for each other,” Fleetwood told Sky Sports.<\/span><\/p>\n “The first thing I said at the start of the week was ‘your team-mates don’t remember if you play bad, miss a putt or lose a point’.<\/span><\/p>\n “But everybody remembers if you don’t give 100% and I couldn’t have asked for any more from anybody this week.”<\/span><\/p>\n Captain Francesco Molinari started off strongly for Continental Europe as he recorded a 3&2 win over Irishman Shane Lowry.<\/span><\/p>\n But it was Great Britain and Ireland who put points on the board next as Fleetwood beat Belgian Thomas Pieters 3&2 and Tyrrell Hatton thumped France’s Antoine Rozner 5&4.<\/span><\/p>\n However, Europe asserted their dominance with Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard beating Seamus Power one up, while Frenchman Victor Perez was too strong for England’s Jordan Smith in a 4&2 success and Austrian Sepp Straka overcame Ewen Ferguson of Scotland 5&4.<\/span><\/p>\n Scotsman Robert MacIntyre upset Sweden’s Alex Noren 5&3, but Meronk clinched the title for Continental Europe on the last hole of match six against Shinkwin.<\/span><\/p>\n There was to be no consolation for Great Britain and Ireland in the final match either as Englishman Richard Mansell fell to a 4&3 loss against Italy’s Guido Migliozzi.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hero Cup has been introduced to give more players greater experience of a matchplay team tournaments, with an eye on the Ryder Cup which is staged biennially between Europe and the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n