The Dutch women's hockey team exuded confidence of winning the Olympic title after edging out favorite Argentina in the semifinal on Tuesday.

The Netherlands, bronze medallist at the past two Olympics, now faces either China or Germany in the gold-medal match on Thursday.

"All teams are really good and the final will be very difficult. It doesn't matter who will be our opponent," said Dutch captain Minjntje Doners, who scored the second goal in Tuesday's semifinal.

"I think we can win against both Germany and China," added the Dutch, who is now the joint scorer leader with China's Tang Chunling on four goals.

Teammate Ageeth Boomgaardt echoed Doners' view.

"We're very happy to reach the final and I don't care who we'll face," said the 31-year-old defender.

The Dutch team downed Argentina, ranked number one in the world, 6-4 in penalty stroke after both sides were tied at 2-2 in regulation and extra time.

The Netherlands beat Argentina to reach final

The Netherlands edged Argentina 6-4 after a penalty shoot-out to reach the final of the women's hockey tournament at the Olympic Games here on Tuesday.

The Netherlands now faces the winner of the other semifinal between China and Germany which will be played later Tuesday.

Both sides were tied at 2-2 after extra time, forcing a penalty shoot-out to decide the match. The Dutch team converted all four penalty strokes while their Argentine opponents netted only two out of four chances.

The Argentineans, ranked number one in the world, went 1-0 ahead in the 17th minute when Agustina Soledad Garcia scored a field goal in the circle.

The Dutch team leveled the score at 1-1 six minutes into the second half when unmarked Sylvia Karres slotted the ball home. Captain Mijntje Donners scored on a penalty corner to put the Dutch women 2-1 ahead.

As the Dutch team looked set for a victory, Argentina managed to tie 2-2 thanks to a goal by Maria Magdalena with less than three minutes remaining in regular time.

Olympic results: women's field hockey

Following are the results from the Olympic women's field hockey on August 24:

Classification matches for 5-8 places:

New Zealand 3 (Niniwa Roberts-Lang 4, Suzie Muirhead 8, Lisa Walton 80 golden goal) South Korea 2 (Kim Yun-Mi 44, Park Mi-Hyun 46)

Halftime: 2-0

Australia 3 (Peta Gallaghar 27, Suzie Falkner 33, Katrina Powell 37) Japan 1 (Tomomi Komori 15)

Halftime: 2-1