Opening up the tournament at Museum Square in Dutch capital Amsterdam, Slovenia claimed a comfortable 21-13 win over the Czech Republic in Group B.

Their second match of the evening proved to be trickier as Latvia pushed them all the way.

However, their quality eventually shone through as they ran out 13-11 winners to advance to the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the day Latvia defeated the Czechs 20-15 to secure a place in the last eight.

France will be their opponents after they narrowly won both of their matches in Group C.

However, both proved to be tight affairs as they edged both Russia and Switzerland 21-19.

In a playoff to see who claimed second place, Russia beat the Swiss 20-17 and will now take on Slovenia.

France were also successful in the women's competition as they topped Group D following two wins.

They opened the women's event with a 19-13 win over Ireland before defeating The Netherlands 13-11.

The Dutch side recovered to thrash Ireland 17-7 to secure second place.

Hungary, the reigning champions in the women's event, were forced to settle for second place in Group A.

Despite winning their opening match against Romania 18-6, the Hungarians were then beaten 14-10 by Switzerland.

The Swiss then guaranteed first place by defeating Romania in this evening's final match 19-15.

Hungary did go through to the quarter-finals in second place.

Group stage action is due to conclude tomorrow.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches will then bring the competition to a close on Sunday (July 9).

This is the first major European 3x3 tournament since the sport became an Olympic event.

It was confirmed in June by the International Olympic Committee that 3x3 will make its Games debut at Tokyo 2020.