REIGNING champions Eve Muirhead and her Scottish team are in the European Curling Campionship final after convincingly beating home nation Sweden yesterday.
Their 9-3 victory gave them the direct passage through to today’s gold medal match, meaning the Swedes will have to battle it out with Russia for the right to meet them.
Sweden opened the scoring with a single in the second, when their fourth player Maria Prytz had to draw against four Scottish counters. But the Scottish breakthrough came in the fifth end when Muirhead had a nose-hit for two.
In a sixth end than featured a spectacular triple take-out by second player Vicki Adams, Sweden levelled the game at 3-3 with a single.
The Scots blanked the seventh and then Muirhead made a hit for four in the eighth for a 7-3 lead and effectively ended the game. The Scots took a steal of two in the ninth when Prytz wrecked, and the teams shook hands with a final score of 9-3.
Muirhead now goes into her third successive European final today.
She said: “I really enjoyed that, and the girls made my job easy. Right until the fifth, each team was forcing ones, but once you get that two, that’s you in control. We blanked the seventh end and went for a two in the eighth and came out with a four, which was a bit of a bonus.”
Muirhead added: “I love these big games, we’ve trained so hard all season and this shows all our hard work is beginning to pay off.
“I don’t really mind who we play in the final but I think that coming out and winning like that will play on their minds, whichever team it is.”