Germany edged China 4-3 in penalty strokes to reach the final of the women's hockey tournament at the Olympic Games here on Tuesday.

The Germans now face the Netherlands, who overcame world number one Argentina in the other semifinal, in the gold-medal match on Thursday.

The match had to go into a penalty strokes after China and Germany were tied 0-0 after regulation time and extra time.

China's Gao Lihua and Zhou Wanfeng failed to convert their penalty strokes while Germany had only one player, Franziska Gude, missing the target.

The Germans in the first half pressed hard for goals and for most of the time before interval the game was played in China's half.

But they failed to convert their movements into goals as Chinese goalkeeper Nie Yali saved four brilliant shots.

The Chinese team, coached by South Korean Kim Chang Back, took the upper hand in the second half and created several scoring opportunities.

China's best chance came in the 58th minute as Ma Yibo and Chen Zhaoxia unleashed two fierce shots following a penalty corner, but both were parried away by German goalie Louisa Walter.

Later China scored a goal on courtesy of a penalty corner but was ruled out for foul.

Olympic women's field hockey results

Following are the results from the Olympic women's field hockey here on Tuesday:

Semi-finals:

Argentina tied the Netherlands 2-2

Full time: 2-2

Extra-time: 2-2

The Netherlands won 4-2 in tie-breaker

China tied Germany 0-0

Full-time: 0-0

Extra-time 0-0

Germany won 4-3 in tie-breaker

Germany play the Netherlands in Thursday's final

Classification matches for 5-8 places:

New Zealand bt South Korea 3-2

Australia bt Japan 3-1

Australia v New Zealand play-off for 5-6 places, and South Korea v Japan for 7-8 places.