The German women's hockey team reached the semi-finals at the World Championships in the Netherlands and Spain.

In the quarter-finals, the team of national coach Valentin Altenburg narrowly won against the reigning Commonwealth champion New Zealand, but earned 1-0 (1-0).

“Today was our biggest game on the road in the last six months.

In the first half, the team played the best half this year.

In addition, there is the overall best defensive performance," said Altenburg: "We can learn a lot from this game and take it with us to Spain."

Lena Micheel (16th) scored the decisive goal for the DHB women.

Possible opponents in the semi-finals on Saturday at 9.30 p.m. (DAZN) in Terrassa, Spain, are two-time world champions Argentina or England, who will not play their quarter-finals until Wednesday.

The last time German hockey women reached the semi-finals at a World Cup was in 2010, when they lost to the South Americans from Argentina.

The German women were dominant for the entire duration of the game, but failed to gain a comfortable lead early on, as they did in the 1-0 win against South Africa in the second round.

Above all, the numerous penalty corners were again too harmless.

10:2 penalty corners and 15:3 chances to score

“We keep working to score more goals.

It's important that there's zero at the back and that we do one more up front," said captain Nike Lorenz after the game.

10:2 penalty corners and 15:3 goal chances confirmed the dominance, but also the bad chances of the German women.

Altenburg's team went offensive from the start and had their first big chance in the ninth minute when Micheel hit the post.

Pauline Heinz (29'/38') could have made it 2-0 twice, but first she hit the post and then put the ball over the goal.

These negligence threatened to take revenge when Olivia Merry (41') narrowly missed the equalizer with New Zealand's first penalty corner.

The decisive goal did not come from a penalty corner, but from the game.

At the start of the second quarter, the "Danas" used a majority situation, Micheel scored her first goal of the tournament from a central position.

"I'm just proud and excited to see who's coming as an opponent," she said.

The New Zealanders, who as undefeated first in their group did not have to go through the second round, only appeared dangerously in the goal area of ​​the Germans towards the end of the game.

In the final section, there was a tremor that was avoidable from a German perspective, in which goalkeeper Nathalie Kubalski distinguished herself several times while being outnumbered three times.

"It still felt safe because we could rely on the defensive," said Altenburg.

Already this Wednesday, the Germans are leaving their World Cup quarters in the Netherlands for Spain.

"Tomorrow at 12.00 the bus will pick us up from the hotel and then we'll be curious to see what the chaos at Schiphol Airport has in store for us," said striker Charlotte Stapenhorst in a good mood.