Leuven awaits as the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship lands on Thursday morning with the 10 leading nations on the continent battling it out for glory at the Sportoase.
The action gets going bright and early at 10am (CET) with reigning European and world champions Austria beginning their title defence against first-timers Croatia.
It will be a big challenge for both with the Red Capricorns adapting to a new line-up following the retirement of all-time top scorer Michael Körper while the Croatian side will be looking to make their mark on debut.
They are in a hugely competitive Pool A with 16-time champions Germany – with the legendary Tobi Hauke in the coaching team – next on court to face Spain who have roared back up the ranks.
For Spain, they took an eight-year break from international indoor but won the third division in 2020 and the second tier in 2022. They have Adrian Rafi between the posts following his star role for Mannheimer HC in the German championship final last weekend to add extra spice to this first contest.
Switzerland wait in the wings for the second series of matches later in the day, completing this five team group.
Pool B gets underway with the meeting between world number five side Czechia versus a Ukraine side adapting quickly in the wake of January’s Olympic qualifiers in Valencia.
It is then the turn of home favourites Belgium who play Portugal at 1.45pm (CET) in their first game of the day. The indoor Red Lions got a huge boost with captain and top scorer Philippe Simar returning to the line-up recently after a knee injury and he will hope to delight a healthy crowd over the weekend.
Their second game of the day will be at 7.45pm (CET) to close out the action. It will be against a Poland side who will be the last side to make their appearance on the boards in a repeat of the 2018 semi-final.
Prior to that, the second phase of games sees Spain face Croatia (4pm, CET), the Swiss face Austria (5.15pm, CET) and Ukraine take on Portugal (18.30, CET).
It sets the tone for a full-throttle weekend of indoor hockey with 29 games set to be live-streamed from this event on www.eurohockeytv.org. You can watch them by picking up an event pass for €9.99 or by using a previously purchased EuroHockeyTV Pass.
** Team by team previews available here: https://eurohockey.org/all-news
