Title holders Australia shook off some poor group stage form and a slow match start to beat Argentina 4-2 on Thursday to reach the Champions Trophy hockey semi-finals.

The Kookaburras, record 13-times and five-time reigning champions, will next play Olympic title holders Germany who beat previously undefeated England 2-0 in the quarters.

Australia had just one group stage win and were also down 2-1 before they beat the third-place World Cup finishers Argentina.

Jeremy Hayward and Chris Ciriello were on target off penalty corners on either side of Daniel Beale's effort for victory.

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Earlier, Matias Paredes and Manuel Brunet had cancelled out the Kookaburras' lead from Simon Orchard.

Kookaburras coach Graham Reid was mostly happy with the performance.

"It was a good learning experience to go behind early in the third quarter then get even and get back in front," he said.

"I'm pleased but not satisfied. Our objective coming here was to progress and develop. There were some good signs today from a couple of the young guys. We're developing leadership within the group and a few people showed leadership today, not just from the captain and the senior players but all the way through."

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan set up a potentially explosive semi-final after recording identical 4-2 wins over fancied opponents later on Thursday.

Hosts India, the former masters of the game lying ninth in the rankings, fought back from a 0-2 deficit to beat number four Belgium in front of a packed house of 7,000 in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar.

Eleventh-ranked Pakistan bounced back from three successive defeats in the preliminary league to stun number two the Netherlands 4-2 after Muhammad Irfan slammed in two quick penalty corners in the fourth quarter.

Pakistan, winless against the Dutch in their last 12 Champions Trophy meetings since 1998, had suffered a humiliating 2-8 thrashing by England four days ago.

But the tournament format, which gave all eight teams a place in the knock-out rounds irrespective of the results in the league, helped Pakistan turn their fortunes around in dramatic style.

Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh said the win over the Dutch, who had lost to India in their last league match, did not surprise him.

"We had studied them very carefully and we had found the right combination in our league games," the former international said.

The match will be a repeat of the Asian Games final in Incheon, South Korea in October, which India won in a penalty shoot-out to gain a direct entry into the 2016 Olympics.