The 29-year-old, a bronze medallist in Zagreb in 2013, led Russian duo Dmitri Aliev and Artur Danielian at the Steiermarkhalle.

Skating to Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Chris Isaac, Březina produced a quadruple Salchow-double toeloop, a triple flip and triple Axel for a score of 89.77 points and lead going into tomorrow's free skate where he will be aiming to succeed Spain's Javier Fernández, winner for seven consecutive years. 

"It's my 13th Europeans, so it only took 13 years. I practiced well, and I just did what I do at practices for the past one-and-a-half months," he said.

"I didn't really come here with any expectations of the placing in top three or top 10, I just wanted to show what I did at the practices and am happy, it's a happy shiny bonus [to be in first],"

Danielian, at 16 the youngest man in the competition, performed a flamenco routine with a quadruple Salchow and triple Lutz-triple toe as well as difficult spins and footwork, but he stumbled on the triple Axel.

The 2018 world junior silver medallist set a personal best of 84.63 points.

Russia’s Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitri Kozlovskii dazzled in the pairs short programme to take a strong lead over team-mates Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin and Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov.

Boikova and Kozlovskii did not miss a beat in their fluid performance to My Way, nailing a side by side triple toeloop, triple twist, throw triple flip. 

The 2019 European bronze medalists collected a level four for the spin, footwork, death spiral and lift to post a personal best of 82.34 points.

"We are very excited to receive so many points, and skate clean, but I don't think we need to concentrate on the points, we need to do our job and we'll get the points," Boikova said. 

"The hardest part is still to come, the long programme. 

"But the schedule here is good. 

"It’s nice to have a day off tomorrow to catch our breath."

As well as the conclusion of the men's event, the ice dance is due to begin.