Scotland battle into World Championship knockout stages to tee up Saturday showdown in Las Vegas after Switzerland win
BySportsbeat
Updated 09/04/2022 at 13:44 GMT
Kyle Waddell's rink were sunk by Canada in Friday's morning session before bouncing back to down Switzerland and qualify alongside Canada, Sweden, Italy, USA and Switzerland. Elsewhere on Friday, Niklas Edin's Swedes edged past Scandinavian rivals Norway 7-6, while Canada secured two wins against Scotland and Denmark to claim top spot in the group with 10 wins from 12.
Kyle Waddell
Image credit: Getty Images
Scotland skip Kyle Waddell reckons his rink are finally doing themselves justice on the big stage after battling through to the World Curling Championship knockout stages in Las Vegas.
The Scots were sunk 8-6 by Canada in Friday's morning session before bouncing back to down Switzerland 9-7 and claim a fourth-place finish in the group.
Canada and Olympic champions Sweden grabbed the top two places – securing automatic progression to the semi-finals – while Italy, USA and Switzerland join Scotland in Saturday's knockout qualification.
Scotland fought back from losing to Netherlands and Sweden on Thursday and Waddell says they're peaking at the perfect time ahead of a showdown with USA in the desert.
The 28-year-old said: "I'm really happy with where we're at, especially after the bad day yesterday.
"We felt we didn't do ourselves justice yesterday.
"I thought we played really well, and in the sixth end we did exactly what we wanted – we said we wanted to score.
"To be fair to them, they played a really good end in seven. We tried not to be too worried."
Italy toppled Norway and USA to claim a third-place finish in the group and will tussle with the Swiss in Saturday's second knockout qualifier.
Skip Joel Retornaz said: "We're super happy for making it into the play-offs.
"We knew we needed this win. We need to play very well to keep the groove for the play-offs."
Elsewhere on Friday, Niklas Edin's Swedes edged past Scandinavian rivals Norway 7-6 while Canada's – who bagged Olympic bronze in Beijing – two wins against Scotland and Denmark saw them top the group with 10 wins from 12.
And Germany and Korea narrowly missed out on qualification after failing to win their final two matches on the Nevada ice.
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