The Netherlands thumped Wales to make sure of their passage into the men’s semi-finals of the EuroHockey Championship in Mönchengladbach.

Duco Telgenkamp got them off to a flying start with his diving touch making it 1-0 and then he produced some ball bouncing skills to wriggle into space and fire home a backhand shot for the second in the seventh minute.

Stephen Kelly’s smart finish cut the gap to 2-1 but the two-goal buffer was restored before half-time, Koen Bijen with the mid-air control and tomahawk finish.

And they raced away with the game in the second half. Terrance Pieters turned in a Thijs van Dam pass for 4-1; van Dam thumped in the next.

Jorrit Croon and Bijen added another couple within seconds of each other and Thierry Brinkman raised the total to eight.

Joep de Mol said of the result: “The goal today was to qualify because they got a point off Germany and are not a bad squad. We are happy with the win and setting the tone for the semi-final and we did it pretty well.

“Tomorrow is about getting in the right headspace for, I think, Belgium – we know them, they know us. There won’t be a lot of surprises and it will be a good semi if we continue as we did today.”