Eve Muirhead's Great Britain rink beaten 10-5 by Sweden in Winter Olympics semi-final
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 24/02/18 9:23am
Great Britain will have to settle for a bronze medal match after Eve Muirhead's rink was beaten 10-5 by Sweden in their Winter Olympics curling semi-final.
Sweden, brilliantly skippered by Anna Hasselborg, were never behind and scored three against the hammer in the seventh end to all-but secure their victory.
Muirhead narrowly missed a double take-out in the second end as Hasselborg drew Sweden into a 2-0 lead.
Great Britain had to settle for a single in the third end to get on the scoreboard, but they were level by the end of the fifth as Muirhead produced an excellent last stone to score two.
But parity would only last a handful of minutes as Hasselborg produced another take-out with her last stone to regain the two-shot advantage.
Worse would follow for Muirhead and her team-mates Vicki Adams, Anna Sloan and Lauren Gray.
A rare mistake from Hasselborg gave Muirhead the chance to level the scores, but she set up a big target for the Sweden skip, who obliged with the double take-out.
Muirhead then compounded things with her final stone not even reaching the house, handing Sweden an almost impregnable 8-3 lead.
She managed to cut the deficit by two heading into the penultimate end but there would be no dream comeback for Team Muirhead as Sweden replied with two of their own to bring an end to the match.
Muirhead said: "We gave it our all but the Swedish girls were on fire. I missed a couple of key draws and you can't afford to do that. We're gutted but we have still got a medal to play for and we will give it our all tomorrow.
"Any semi-final you lose is hard. As a team I thought we had a good opportunity but unfortunately we were on the back foot from the start."
Great Britain will take on Japan for the bronze medal after they were beaten 8-7 in 11 ends by hosts South Korea, who face Sweden with a gold medal on the line.
