New Zealand booked a place in the Olympic women's hockey semi-finals for the first time on Monday after a goalless draw with Germany knocked the 2004 champions out of the London Games. Britain also made it through to the final four thanks to China's 1-0 loss to Japan, and will be joined by pool leaders the Netherlands and either Argentina or Australia.
Australia must beat Argentina to advance while a draw would be enough for the world champions. Germany only had an outside chance of going through to the semi-finals, having already lost to Australia and Argentina. They would have needed to beat New Zealand, pre-tournament outsiders ranked sixth in the world, by a three-goal margin but a bit of bad luck, having two goals disallowed, and a strong Kiwi defence held the Germans back. New Zealand, only needing a draw, started off well and hit the post, then focused mostly on defending and launching counter-attacks.
Germany had the ball in the net two minutes before halftime but it was ruled out after a video referral called by the umpire failed to prove Maike Stoeckel got a touch inside the circle. In the second half, Germany managed to hold the ball largely in the New Zealand half but could not convert any of their six set-piece penalty corners and a slew of free game chances.
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