The NZ women's team is in medal contention after a 4-2 win over Australia put them into the semi-finals.

As soon as the final whistle blew in their quarter-final demolition of Australia, Black Sticks coach Mark Hager was already thinking about their next match,

But he also had one eye on the past.

In London in 2012, the side lost a semifinal penalty shootout to the Dutch and then lost to Britain to return home empty-handed to prolong their Olympic medal drought.

MARTY MELVILLE/PHOTOSPORT Gemma Flynn salutes after scoring a goal against Australia.

"We don't want to go home with nothing this time," he told the huddle of players after their crushing 4-2 win over the Hockeyroos.

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They face Great Britain at 8am on Thursday (NZ time) for a spot in the final and skipper Kayla Whitelock sounded an ominous warning for their opponents.

MARK KOLBE/GETTY IMAGES Captain Kayla Whitelock scored from a penalty corner as the Black Sticks advanced to the semifinals with a 4-2 victory over Australia.

"I think we're just starting to click. Things are working well for us," she told NZ Newswire.

"We know the job's not done. We can't just rest on our laurels here and think that because we've had a good win in the quarters it's going to happen in the semi.

"If we keep playing how we're playing and believe in ourselves, have confidence and execute the game plan that's going to get us through to that medal match," she told NZ Newswire.

CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES Goalkeeper Sally Rutherford made a couple of slick saves with New Zealand only up one goal on Australia.

Anita McLaren opened the scoring for New Zealand with her first penalty corner strike of the tournament before Kelsey Smith doubled their lead before the break.

Australia pegged a goal back through Kathryn Slattery but two more efforts from Gemma Flynn and Olivia Merry put the game beyond doubt despite a late consolation to Slattery.

Veteran McLaren says they'll head into the semifinal on something of a roll after beating Australia and drawing with defending champions the Netherlands, both of which are ranked ahead of New Zealand.

CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES New Zealand players celebrate after defeating Australia 4-2 to reach the Rio Olympics semifinals.

That moment when you make it to the semi finals 💪 #olympics2016 pic.twitter.com/2yT123aESE — Anita McLaren (Punt) (@anita_punt) August 15, 2016

"We just have to play our structures, play our game and go into the game confident like we've been doing.

"We've been building through this tournament and I'm excited about what we can do."

CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES New Zealand's Stacey Michelsen controls the ball under pressure from Australia's Mariah Williams (24) and Madonna Blyth (12) during their quarterfinal.

Great Britain toppled Spain 3-1 to set up the semifinal showdown.

The quarterfinal against the Hockeyroos played out just as Anita McLaren had envisioned.

"I played this game a few times in my head over the night, but to come out with the win was amazing."

She had visualised them winning, but not by scoring four goals against the No 3-ranked Australians.

McLaren chose the perfect time to open her penalty corner account in the tournament to shoot over the head of Jodie Kenny in the seventh minute.

"I finally backed my drag flick," she said.

McLaren said their goal glut was reward for the attention they had paid to that facet of the game.

"This whole year we've been getting the chances, creating so many opportunities but they haven't been falling.

"To start getting those goals now for us is great. We've worked really hard, especially after the Champions Trophy, we've been working on goalscoring and to see it pay off is great."

Whitelock said the key to the win was their work off the ball.

"We stuck to our guns. We knew what we needed to do to beat Australia.

"We just had to believe in ourselves, execute the game plan and chase. That's the key to us - if we chase, we're going to win games."

- NZN

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