Great Britain will play Ireland for fifth place on Sunday morning whilst Saturday's semi finals feature the Netherlands against South Africa and Germany against Australia,
Britain dominated but Germany defended dourly. Danny Kerry, the GB coach, said he was "proud of his team's exceptional performance." Chloe Rogers and Helen Richardson were immense and Laura Unsworth gave another assured performance at sweeper.
Germany struck twice within two minutes just before half time. Janine Beemann dived full length to turn the ball into an empty goal and Hannah Kruger struck the second with a first time volley from a right wing cross. GB's only success came 11 minutes from time when Hannah Macleod had the last touch on a series of chances. The six penalty corners they failed to score from highlighted the absence of Crista Cullen and Kate Walsh.
Ireland held out for 31 minutes but were overcome by the Netherlands for whom Naomi van As and Eva de Goede excelled. Emma Gray had saved two penalty corners from de Goede and a spectacular save from Caia van Maasakker but was helpless when Kelly Jonker opened the scoring. Jonker went on to complete a hat trick with the other goals coming from Marilyn Agliotti and Ellen Hoog. Ireland's best effort came from their only penalty corner, Audrey O'Flynn's flick producing a very good save by Joyce Sombroek the Dutch goalkeeper.
