Poland and Austria completed the schaunisland reisen EuroHockey Indoor Championship semi-final line-up in Heidelberg as they both did enough to leave Czechia out of the running.

Poland left it right until the last minute to snatch their place in the final four ahead of Czechia courtesy of a Jacek Kurowski goal which earned a 4-4 draw.

The Czechs led 2-0 and 4-2  with Lukas Plochý driving things and Adam Uhlíř equally influential to put them in the frame for a first semi-final since 2016.

But a Gracjan Jarzyński stroke with three minutes gave them hope before Kurowksi swooped on the final chance for the draw.

That result meant Austria needed to avoid a three-goal defeat against Portugal to follow Poland through and they got that with a 3-3 draw.

Rodrigo Castro’s counter-attack goal had given Portugal the lead before Austria came into their stride in Q2, creating a 3-2 advantage with goals from Florian Steyrer, Nikolas Wellan and Marcin Nyckowiak.

David Franco levelled in Q3 before the game tightened up with precious few chances in the closing phases, a result which saw the Red Capricorns through as top of Pool A.

In Pool B, Switzerland won a goalfest against Belgium 8-5 to take third place in the group and a game with Portugal in the fifth to eighth place playoffs.

They were never behind and pulled away in Q4 after it was level at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 with Loris Grandchamp scoring a hat trick.

That left Germany to play Spain in the last group game to determine who went through in first and second. Once again, in front of a full house at the SNP Dome, the Germans raced out of the blocks with goals from Anton Pöhling, Nicolas Proske and Nik Kerner.

Spain rallied with Ferran Muñoz and Pablo Roman reducing the deficit to 4-2 at half-time and they got within one by the final reckoning 5-4 but Germany held on for the win and first in the group.