Reuters
August 21, 2008 - 12:00 a.m. EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hosts China defeated Olympic champions Germany 3-2 on Wednesday to advance to the final of the women's hockey tournament where they will meet the Netherlands, who demolished Argentina 5-2 in the day's other semi-final.

The Chinese came from behind twice before finally pulling ahead of an error-prone German side and guaranteeing for themselves their first Olympic medal in the event.

"This is not the time to be happy because we still have one match to go. We need to calm down now," Chinese coach Kim Chang Back told reporters after the match.

The fluid Netherlands showed why they are tournament favourites, with a hat-trick by the inform Maartje Paumen leading the Dutch to a comprehensive win over a hapless Argentina.

All Paumen's scoring shots came from penalty corners and took her tally for the Games to an impressive 11 goals. The next highest scorer on her team has just two goals.

Argentina's former soccer captain Diego Maradona was in the stadium to cheer on his compatriots, but they made little impression on the well organised Dutch team, getting two late goals only when the Netherlands had victory in hand.

"Today we really came out firing. This shows we are strong and fit which will be important against China in the final," said Dutch forward Marilyn Agliotti, who also scored on Wednesday.

"China will definitely have the home crowd behind them, but that just improves the atmosphere."

The Dutch are unbeaten so far in the tournament and have already beaten China 1-0 in the group stage of the competition.

Germany scored at the start of both halves in their game, but a stream of careless passes constantly let the Chinese into their half and the host nation finally took the lead in the 58th minute thanks to a well taken goal from Zhao Yudiao.

"We were unlucky with our defending and we lost the plot. We are going to be really devastated tonight but we will focus on getting the bronze," Germany's Fanny Rinne said.

Wednesday's semi-finals were an exact repeat of the last four line up in the 2004 Games. On that occasion, Germany beat China to go on to win the gold while the Netherlands again bested Argentina.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Alison Williams)