‘Guarding against complacency’ seems to be the mantra European stars want to follow with world No1 Rory McIlroy saying his side needs to learn from their win last time in Medinah.
Europe surged to a 10-6 lead at Gleneagles on Saturday after dominating the foursomes session with three wins and a halve.
They had earlier lost the morning fourballs, which allowed America to close the gap to one point.
“Obviously, going into tomorrow, we have a lot of momentum on our side," McIlroy said on Saturday night. "But at the same time, we just need to cast our minds back to two years ago when we were in a similar position to the US Team.
“There can’t be any complacency on our side. It’s going to be a tough battle. We know the US are going to come out strong and we need to focus and get the job done and try and win the session tomorrow.
“This isn’t a walk in the park tomorrow. This is much more than that. This is a challenge. We have to go out and stay focused and stay committed to what we’ve done all week, which is try our hardest on each and every shot until the very end.”
And Paul McGinley, who has toploaded his singles line-up with Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, McIlroy and Justin Rose as his first four players needing just four points to retain the trophy, said: “I’m a very happy captain, obviously, with a four-point lead going into the singles.
“But obviously the big word for us is complacency. The big word is not conceding momentum… well, that’s two words actually. This job is far from finished. We’re in a great position, but we’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
American captain Tom Watson expressed optimism that his team can still pull it off.
“Well, in the infamous words of our President, we got shellacked this afternoon. Again, there was some ebb and flow, but it ebbed too much in the afternoon,” said the 63-year-old. “But we are still there.
"I have trust in my players that they can get it done. I have an innate trust. They have what it takes. They are just going to have to play better. We’ve got to smoke ‘em. We’ve to take them out early.”
Watson has shown his confidence in his rookies Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, and they will be the first two players out, followed by Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan.
