Kijala, who remains a relative unknown in the sport, proved too strong for the Irishman, who is highly regarded in his home nation and won gold at the inaugural European Games in Baku last year.

The Finnish competitor prevailed comfortably as he was given the bout on all three of the judges' scorecards.

The result provides a blow to O'Reilly's hopes of representing the country at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, although he will have another chance of securing qualification at the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the Azerbaijani capital from June 7 to 19.

David Joyce was able to succeed where his compatriot had failed as the AIBA Pro Boxing fighter beat Georgia's Otar Eranosyan by unanimous decision in their lightweight bout.

Britain's Joe Cordina, the European champion in the division, joined Joyce in the next round by dominating Miklos Varga of Hungary from start to finish on his way to a commanding victory.

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Anthony Fowler, also of Britain, cruised into the quarter-finals with a unanimous win in his middleweight clash against Moldova's Valeri Sirbu.

It ended up being a fruitful day for the British boxers at the tournament, although Qais Ashfaq had to battle his way through after he was cut by opponent Merab Turkadze of Georgia in the bantamweight class.

Despite the difficulty he suffered during the bout, the 23-year-old showed his character and eventually progressed on points.

As many as 36 qualification spots for Rio 2016 are on the line in Samsun, where a total of 217 men and 57 women, representing 38 European countries, are competing.

There are 10 weight categories for men, ranging from light flyweight up to super heavyweight, with the two finalists from each division receiving a Rio 2016 quota spot and the two losing semi-finalists taking part in a box-off for the third and final qualification place.

The women are competing in three weight categories, flyweight, lightweight and middleweight, with the two finalists in each class winning a Rio 2016 quota.