QINHUANGDAO, August 15, 2008 (AFP) - Goals from Homare Sawa and Yuki Nagasato blasted Japan into the women's Olympic football semi-finals Friday at the expense of arch-rivals China.

The 2-0 victory sets up a showdown with the United States, the defending champions, for a place in the final and leaves the host nation without a team in the tournament after their men also crashed out.

Japan got off to a bright start with Azusa Iwashimizu raising hopes early on when she picked up the ball inside the Chinese half before unleashing a long range drive that forced goalkeeper Zhang Yanru into a diving save.

They had another opportunity soon after but there was no-one on the end of a low cross from Sawa that raced across the face of the goal.

Sawa though got her third goal of the tournament on 15 minutes when she rose above Zhang Ying to plant a powerful header in the left hand corner after a deep cross by Aya Miyama.

China were struggling to create any chances, leaving all the running to Japan with Shinobu Onho firing a left foot drive into the arms of Zhang on the half-hour mark.

Nagasato was unlucky not to stretch Japan's lead just before half-time when she danced past a defender and sent a shot dipping just over the bar.

China's first and only sniff of goal in the opening 45 minutes came during the dying seconds in a goalmouth scramble that saw Han Duan, Zhang Ying and Li Jie all have a stab at getting the ball in the net, to no avail.

The home team never looked like winning with the visitors continuing to threaten in the second-half, some lax defending opening doors for Japan.

Nagasato pounced to seal the match with 10 minutes left, capitalising on China's failure to clear during a danger moment in the box, latching onto a loose ball and slotting it past the diving keeper.

One consolation for China was a lack of crowd trouble.

There were fears of baiting by the home supporters after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Friday visited a controversial war shrine that China considers a symbol of Tokyo's past wartime aggression.

Previously, games between the two sides have often been marred with taunting and booing by Chinese supporters angry at the pain Japan inflicted during its occupation of China in the Second World War.