Scotland's Team Muirhead reach European Curling Championships final
BySportsbeat
Published 26/11/2021 at 12:17 GMT
Eve Muirhead and her team beat Germany 7-4 in the semi-finals to set up a decider with Sweden tomorrow. The tournament - important in its own right - is key preparation for the Olympic qualifier in the Netherlands next month, with the women's team yet to secure Team GB a place at Beijing 2022.
Scotland's Team Muirhead are into the European Curling Championships final
Image credit: Getty Images
Scotland's Team Muirhead will take on Sweden for the gold medal at the European Curling Championships in Lillehammer after a dramatic victory over Germany on Thursday evening.
Led by Eve Muirhead, the team defeated Turkey 9-4 earlier on in their final round-robin match to top the standings, while Germany sealed the fourth and final playoff spot with a comprehensive 11-4 victory against the Czech Republic.
Russia had sealed second place in the standings thanks to a dominant 11-2 win over Estonia, while Sweden had beaten Denmark 7-3.
The other round-robin match saw Italy ease to a 10-1 victory over Switzerland.
In the first semi-final, Sweden narrowly defeated Russia, with a one in the final end handing them a 5-4 victory in dramatic fashion to seal the first spot in the final.
Russia were leading 4-2 with just two ends to go, though the Swedes drew level in the ninth end by winning by two and then snatched victory in the final end.
Sweden, led by skipper Anna Hasselborg, will be looking to win a third straight European title in Saturday's final to add to the Olympic gold they won in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Scotland were favourites heading into the second semi-final though found themselves 3-1 down at the halfway point, with a German team led by Daniela Jentsch winning three of the opening five ends.
However, Team Muirhead drew level at 3-3 after winning the sixth end by two and then took the lead after winning the seventh end by one.
Germany drew level in the eighth but Team Muirhead won the final two ends by a margin of three to seal a 7-4 victory.
Muirhead and Victoria Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff will look to regain the title Scotland last won in 2016, where Muirhead was also the skipper.
In the men's event, Scotland - led by Bruce Mouat - won their final round-robin match against Norway, and will face them again in tomorrow's semi-final having won all nine matches they contested.
Team Mouat won the opening two ends against Norway and eventually cruised to an 8-3 victory against tomorrow's opponents.
The first of tomorrow's men's semi-finals sees Italy take on Sweden, and both nations' prevailed in their final round-robin matches today.
Italy comfortably saw off Finland 8-3, while Sweden beat Czech Republic 8-2.
Elsewhere, Denmark ended their championships with a 9-5 win over the Netherlands while Switzerland saw off Germany 7-6 after an extra end to decide who prevailed.
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