Belgium overcame a first quarter deficit to run up a big 10-1 win over Austria and start their men’s EuroHockey Championship on a winning note.

Austria had taken a shock lead just before the end of Q1 when a long overhead was miscontrolled by the Belgian defence and Josef Winkler nipped in. He slipped to Benjamin Kölbl who returned the favour for Winkler to slap in.

But no sooner had Belgium gone behind than they had the lead. Maxime Van Oost was unmarked to finish off a diagonal pass and then Thibeau Stockbroekx profited from Antoine Kina’s clever assist for 2-1.

Roman Duvekot thumped home another early in the second half and they were in the clear when Alexander Hendrickx ripped in a corner, 4-1.

Tom Boon added another following a beautiful interchange and Nico de Kerpel’s flying reverse-stick shot extended the lead to 6-1. Hendrickx got his second with a penalty stroke before Duvekot doubled his total. Antoine Kina and Arthur De Sloover completed the result.