The 4-2 win has moved the Belgians into fourth place in the round-robin and could be enough to get them a place in the play-off for third.

This will happen so long as Olympic champions Argentina do not beat reigning world champions Australia tomorrow at BH & BC Breda.

Belgium and Pakistan came into today's match occupying the two bottom places in the pool and both knew that a win was essential to keep their hopes of a medal alive. 

The Pakistanis were the better team initially and took a deserved lead in the 11th minute.

Aleem Bilal sent a penalty corner just inside the post to take a 1-0 lead, before the Belgians improved in the second quarter although still failing to score.

The Belgians continued to grow into the match during the second half and their captain Thomas Briels eventually equalised in the 36th minute following a lovely piece of skill.

At the end of the third quarter the score stood at 2-2, after another strong penalty corner for Pakistan was scored by Bilal and a tap in from Belgium's Amaury Keusters.

The final quarter then saw Belgium dominate and they eventually took the lead when Cedric Charlier tapped in after a penalty corner routine initially failed. 

Florent van Aubel then converted to make it 4-2.

Afterwards the match winner said Belgium were "really happy" with their performance. 

"It is a tournament in which we have not showed our best form, so we have had to find other ways in which to win games," Charlier said.

"Mentally it was really tough to stay in the game, but at the end we tried to do the little things well and that is what gave us the win today."

The Champions Trophy continues tomorrow with the final two pool matches between Argentina and Australia and The Netherlands against India.

Australia currently top the pile in front of India with the top two advancing to the gold medal match and third and fourth playing for bronze.

Two FIH Hockey Series events continued, in Singapore and Zagreb.

In the former, the hosts beat Chinese Taipei 4-0 today to lead the men's competition with five straight wins.

Malaysia beat Singapore 5-0 to top the women's pile.

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