Eve Muirhead was left cursing the curling Gods and searching for her calculator as her Olympic ambitions teetered in Beijing.
The European champion and her rink slipped to a narrow 8-4 defeat to China in another game that went to the wire.
And it’s been that sort of week for Perthsire star Muirhead, playing well but just not getting any luck when she needs it most.
With only four teams to progress to the semi-finals, Team GB boast a 4-4 record with one round robin game to play against Russia on Thursday.
💬"We gave ourselves a lot of chances but unfortunately didn't manage to finish it off."
Eve Muirhead and Vicky Wright talk about #TeamGB's disappointing match against China.
📱Follow live ⤵️https://t.co/khxNeAugrF#BBCOlympics #Beijing2022 #Curling pic.twitter.com/q8AMD6bKq4
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 16, 2022
They could still advance but will need matches to go their way, with Switzerland beating Japan and Korea losing one of their two remaining games.
“We need to hope a few results go our way but because we beat Japan and USA, we need hope they drop a game,” said four-time Olympian – and Courier Sport columnist – Muirhead.
“We need to come out and concentrate on our performance against Russia and focus on what we can do and then hope the curling Gods are on our side.
“It’s been one of those weeks, sometimes you get the rubs and sometimes nothing seems to go your way. The teams we are playing are really up to beat us.
“It’s a little frustrating, we are playing really well as a team and we’ve had some great performances since winning the Europeans and coming through the qualifying tournament.”
So close with Eve's final stone!
But it's not to be and China take the win.#TeamGB #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/ymAL9VFozH
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 16, 2022
This is Muirhead’s fourth Games but she’s only reached the knockout stages in one, winning bronze in Sochi eight years ago.
Muirhead’s rink looked in control of their game with China early on but needed three in the final end to level the scores as the momentum swung against them.
And the skip was just fractions away from pulling off a wonder shot with her final stone that would have forced the extra end.
“I thought I’d made that shot, another millimetre and we’d have still been out there,” she added.
“That was a tough shot, you aren’t going to make it very often but when you’ve got no other shot then you need to give those things a go.
“It just seems up that things haven’t quite gone our way but there is still time for that to change.”
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