Britain’s Lily Owsley (left) is challenged by Liz Thompson, of New Zealand.

Britain beat New Zealand 3-0 in women’s hockey on Wednesday night, with two late penalty goals securing victory in a tense, close-fought clash and a place in the Olympic final against the Netherlands.

Britain led 1-0 at half-time in the semi-final but the New Zealanders kept fighting until the women in red made it safe with goals from two penalties in the last 10 minutes.

“It was such a hard game. We had to ride it out,” said Britain’s Nicola White.

“There were some difficult patches. They are so good at counter- attacking and they are so quick and skilful. We just had to bide our time then we got free hits and we scored them.”

With a silver medal guaranteed, the Rio Games is already Britain’s best ever Olympic women’s hockey performance.

The Netherlands, defending champions and unbeaten at the Olympics since 2004, will start as favourites to take their third consecutive gold in today’s final. But they were lucky to go through on Wednesday, only beating Germany 4-3 in a shootout after finishing 1-1 in normal time.

The disappointment on the faces of the Kiwi women, who are trying to win their first Olympic medal in the sport, was immense as they left the field.

“I don’t think we got any calls our way that whole game. Disappointing, wasn’t disciplined enough. We just didn’t stick to our structure and didn’t play the way we wanted to play today,” said New Zealand goalie Kayla Whitelock.

The Britons, cheered on by raucous, singing supporters, were elated at reaching the team’s first Olympic final.

“One more game, one more win, we’ve just got to take our chance,” White said. “They had their chances at pressure and we just had to hold on.”

Lily Owsley said Britain had trained hard to get where they had and had their eyes set on gold.

“It’s not luck, it’s not fluke. That’s what these Olympics are all about, grinding out wins,” she said. “It’s a long tournament and we are not settling for silver. We are going for gold.