Germany won the surprising women's hockey gold medal for the first time, beating the Netherlands 2-1 surprisingly in the Olympic final in Athens on Thursday.

The match started with the Netherlands' early attack as a large crowd shouted and applauded for the Netherlands.

However, Kuehn scored off the variation to the left and flicked the ball low into the right of the goal at 4:46, leading Germany 1- 0 ahead the Netherlands.

Sixteen minutes later, German team pushed into attack up the right, and entered the circle on the right.

Keller's shot was saved by Dutch goalkeeper Sinnige and the ball fell to Gude. She hit the ball in on her reverse and won the second goal for Germany.

In the second half, the Netherlands led a fierce counter-attack against Germany, and finally added one goal at 37:31 by Scheepstra.

Although leading in shots on target and penalty corners, the Netherlands still failed to even the score, and granted the gold medal to weaker Germany.

It is the first time for Germany to win the women's hockey gold in Olympic Games, which pocketed two Olympic silvers before.