Hockeyroos thumped by Dutch in semi-final

The Hockeyroos have gone down 5-1 to reigning world and Olympic champions the Netherlands in their World Hockey League semi-final.

The Australian women's hockey team will fight New Zealand for the bronze medal at the World Hockey League in Belgium after losing their semi-final 5-1 to the Netherlands.

Safe in the knowledge they've qualified for next year's Rio Olympics, the Hockeyroos put up a gallant fight but were no match against the reigning world and Olympic champions.

They found themselves on the back foot early, as the Dutch scored two in quick succession just before quarter-time, their efforts further complimented by Ginella Zerbo's deflection after the break to make it 3-0.

Australia was given reason to hope thanks to Kathryn Slattery's goal a minute before half-time, but Lidewij Welten struck 15 minutes later to put the result beyond doubt.

Willemijn Bos netted another late goal for the Netherlands, who will now take on Korea in Saturday's final and also claim one of the three automatic qualification places at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"What's disappointing about this match is we've worked hard to close the gap between us and the Netherlands and I think we saw today we still have some work to do," said coach Adam Commens.

"I think we can certainly play better than what we showed."

Irrespective of whether the Hockeyroos beat New Zealand, they have already earned Olympic qualification by virtue of Korea's progression to the semi-finals - Korea already qualified for Rio by being crowned the 2014 women's Asian Games champions, which freed up one spot in the semis.

"Our main objective is the Olympic Games in Rio," Commens said.

"And what we see here is a number of things that we can improve on and work hard on over these coming months."


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Source: AAP


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