Spain?s Victor Sojo vies with India?s Arjun Halappa during the Champions Trophy match in Lahore on Saturday. (Reuters)

Lahore: India got off to the worst possible start, crashing 0-4 to Spain in their opening match of the Champions Trophy hockey tournament here Saturday.

Intense preparations for this elite six-nation event came to nought as the hapless Indians were pounded by the Olympic semi-finalists who scored through Alex Fabregas (42 nd minute), Eduard Arbos (60th), Santiago Freixa (63rd) and Juan Escarre (65th).

In fact, India hardly put up a fight in the match which saw the European team play cautiously in the first half, only to step on the gas after the break.

Spain opened up after the initial 35 minutes during which they hardly took any risk. Both teams were on even terms in the first half, but as soon as the game resumed after the break, the Spaniards made their intentions clear.

India, on the other hand, hardly displayed any aggression and failed to repeat the performance that they had put up against Spain while drawing the recent two-match Test series at home 1-1.

Alex Fabregas drew first blood for the Spaniards by smartly deflecting in a fine cross from the left by Francesco Fabregas.

There was no looking back for the Spaniards who intensified the pressure under which the Indian defence crumbled.

To compound India?s misery, Sandeep Singh was temporarily ejected from the ground for pulling down Arbos from behind in the 47th minute as the team plunged into desperation to level the score.

But the Indians had no answer to the Spanish onslaught in the last quarter of the game as they conceded three more goals in a span of just four minutes.

Arbos scored an opportunistic goal after receiving a free ball inside the circle from the half line before Freixa scored from a penalty stroke to add to the tally three minutes later.

Stunned by the Spanish blizzard, India tried to fight back, but with their opposition defence holding ground, they failed to get a breakthrough.

Captain Escarre drove the last nail in the Indian coffin by scoring a minute later.

India, who made it to this prestigious event by default after Australia pulled out on security grounds, play their next match against defending champions Holland on Sunday.

Interestingly, before the tournament, chief coach Gerhard Rach had said that he believed the current forward-line ? much of which is sans top stars like Gagan Ajit Singh because the coach doesn?t get along with him ? was better than the previous ones.

There are more matches to come, but India?s form book has been clearly revealed.

India, who seem to be the crowd?s favourites here after hosts Pakistan, got good support from the stands. All that was, however, to no avail. (PTI)