MADRID, March 12: Spain and the Netherlands reached the final of the Olympic qualifying hockey tournament on Thursday(partly reported on Friday's edition).

The Netherlands beat India 4-2 while hosts Spain defeated Pakistan 3-2 to make sure of their places in the final.

Spain coped well with the emotional strain, playing fast attacking hockey and creating 10 shots on goal.

Eduard Tubau scored from Spain's first penalty corner, flicking high to the right of Ahmed Alam in Pakistan's goal.

Shakeel Abassi scored a deflection goal for Pakistan towards the end of the first half to take the teams to the break locked at 1-1.

Tubau struck again four minutes after the break, collecting a pass from the left to make room for himself on the right of the circle and drive into goal.

In the last five minutes, Pakistan reversed the pressure and applied it to Spain. Muhammad Nadeem took a free hit outside Spain's circle with Mudassar Ali Khan getting a touch on the ball to guide it into goal for the equaliser.

Spain fruitlessly protested the ball had not touched a Pakistan stick in the circle and Santiago Freixa hit back for Spain scoring the winning goal a minute later.

Earlier India took the lead in the first half through Gagan Ajit Singh who scored a field goal against the strong Dutch defence. But India were let down by its defence conceding two penalty corner goals to Netherlands ace drag-flicker Taeke Taekema.

The Dutch played with a better structure and determination in the second half and wore down India's midfield to get quality possession to its strikers inside their opponents' defensive zone where Matthijs Brouwer scored two field goals from sharp chances in front of goal.

India coach Rajinder Singh admitted they have a problem with their penalty corner defence.

Great Britain and New Zealand qualified for Athens by defeating Belgium 2-1 and South Africa 3-2 respectively earlier Thursday.

South Africa play Belgium Saturday with the winner of that match going to Athens.

Poland defeated Canada 2-1 and will play-off for ninth and tenth place against Malaysia because Malaysia defeated Japan 3-2.-AFP