France twice came back from behind to win an eight-goal thriller against Poland 5-3, keeping alive their chances of reaching the men’s semi-finals at the EuroHockey Championships.

It swung back and forth with Poland leading twice in the first half. They went ahead from the penalty spot via Gracjan Jarzyński but Corentin Sellier equalised following an intercept and counter move from France.

Less than a minute later, the Poles were back in front from a corner, Tomasz Bembenek applying the corner power to make it 2-1. Victor Charlet, though, swapped the lead around before half-time with a drag-flick and a penalty stroke.

The goals kept flowing into the second half with Wojciech Rutkowski, touching in after Robert Pawlak picked the pockets of the French defence.

Once again, the reply was quick with Timothée Clément enjoying space in the circle to make it 4-3. Xavier Esmenjaud finally put some daylight between the teams with a brilliant reverse-stick scoop early in the fourth quarter.

And that was how it remained to the finish, a result which lifts Les Bleus to three points while Poland are yet to register after two defeats so far.

Germany women to the fore

Sophia Schwabe’s double underpinned a dominant first half performance propelled Germany’s women to a 4-1 victory over France who endured a tough return to the top division after a 20-year gap.

The French did fight back in the second half as they overcame some stage fright but the Germans were too far out of reach.

After a quartet of incomplete corners, Sara Strauss set the ball rolling for the Germans, getting in behind the French defence to coolly flick into the net.

It came during a dominant phase and Schwabe was on hand when a hard ball into the circle popped off a couple of sticks and the forward was there to pick up the pieces.

Lena Micheel made it 3-0, poking in a pass from Schwabe and the striker then cashed in from a corner rebound, again keeping her composure before lifting the ball over Lucie Ehrmann.

It left the French four behind but they came out much stronger, pulling one back when Paola La Nindre’s disguised corner push went to Eve Verzura who got the diving touch.

Olympic champs off and running

The Netherlands ran up a hugely impressive win over Spain to start their title defence in strong form, winning 3-0 with Tjep Hoedemakers to the fore.

It took 25 minutes to get on the scoreboard when Tjep Hoedemakers was given space to attack and he entered the circle and unleashed a backhand from a narrow angle.

Goal two was a wonderful piece of work, a raking long pass from defence to the edge of the circle was worked to the baseline and lifted across goal where Terrance Pieters volleyed in.

Floris Middendorp then worked his way into space in the circle to thump in the third, ultimately putting the game out of reach of Spain who were competitive throughout.

Red Lions maul Austria

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.