The South Americans defeated Australia 4-2 in the first semi-final before the Dutch defeated Spain 4-0 to move a step closer to a successful title defence.

The final on Sunday (December 4) will be a repeat of the last edition’s gold medal match in 2013, when The Netherlands triumphed 4-2 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in Monchengladbach, Germany.

Pan American champions Argentina were the better team for many parts of the match with Australia as their skill and flair overpowered their opponents.

Bianca Donati scored from a fourth-minute penalty corner in what proved to be the only goal of the first half, despite numerous attempts on target for both teams.

Argentina doubled their lead in the 44th minute through Lucia Sanguinetti before Milagros Fernandez scored from open play just before the hour mark to make it 3-0.

Australia’s Greta Hayes pulled one back in the 66th minute before captain Mariah Williams reduced the deficit further with only a minute remaining.

The Oceania champions threw bodies forward in an attempt to find an equaliser, but Argentina took advantage as they went on to score one final goal in the dying seconds through Julieta Jankunas.

"We are so happy because we did everything that we planned," said Sanguinetti.

"We worked so hard today and had a great performance.

"We knew the game today was going to be hard because Australia is a great team, so we’re really happy to be in the final again."

In the other semi-final, The Netherlands’ Pleun van der Plas scored her fifth goal of the tournament after only 11 minutes against Spain, while the competition’s top goalscorer, Frederique Matla, extended her lead at the top of the charts after converting two penalty strokes in the game to take her total to 12.

The first came in the 22nd minute and the second only two minutes from time following Maxime Kerstholt’s goal in the 58th minute.

The Dutch performance was further evidence of their dominance at this event, where they have scored 37 goals so far, nearly double that of their next opponents Argentina with 21.

"I think we did great tonight," said Dtuch captain Maartje Krekelaar.

"We had a lot of beautiful combinations, beautiful goals so it was a great day."

Speaking about their final opponents, Fabienne Roosen said: "Argentina are very good, they are very skilful, have good offence, so it will be a tough game."

In the fifth to eighth-place classification matches, Belgium beat the United States 2-1 before Germany overcame England 1-0.

Prior to the final on Sunday, England will face the US in the seventh-place play-off and Germany will go up against Belgium in the battle to finish fifth.

The penultimate match of the competition will see Spain meet Australia in the bronze medal match.

Zimbabwe and France go head-to-head in the first of tomorrow’s classification matches, the 15th-place play-off.

This will be followed by New Zealand’s clash with South Africa in the 13th-place play-off, China’s meeting with Japan in the ninth-place play-off and South Korea’s encounter with hosts Chile in the 11th-place play-off.