Germany edged China 4-3 in penalty shoot-out to reach the final of the women's hockey tournament at the Olympic Games in Athens 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. Argentina and China will now fight it out for the consolation of claiming bronze.

The match had to go into a penalty shoot-out 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.

"We missed a lot of opportunities today. But my players tried their best, I'm the one to blame for the loss," said China coach Kim Changback.

"We will go all out in the bronze-medal match," added the South Korean.

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 took the upper hand in the second half and created several scoring opportunities with as many as 10 penalty corners.

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.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2004)