Team Muirhead book European semi-final spot
BySportsbeat
Published 22/11/2017 at 16:19 GMT
Their semi-final spot may be sealed but Eve Muirhead insists there is little chance of her rink taking their feet off the gas as they prepare to face hosts Switzerland at the European Curling Championships.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Team Muirhead face Switzerland tonight with both nations currently sitting on a 6-1 win-loss record, their places confirmed alongside the unbeaten Swedish rink in the semi-finals.
The Scots recorded their sixth victory of the championships with a convincing win over the Czech Republic in St Gallen, prevailing 8-4 after setting themselves up nicely with a three in the first end.
The Czech rink pulled two back in the second but never quite put up enough of a challenge to worry Team Muirhead, who wrapped up the victory with another two in the penultimate end.
"It was another great team effort," said skip Muirhead.
"At the first end Anna [Sloan] had a cracking hit and roll behind the guard and so did Vicki [Adams]. I had a slash double and made it for three.
"For the rest of the game it was quite straightforward with Vicki and Anna peeling and Lauren [Gray]'s draw weight perfect, so it was easy for me to do my bit and finish off. The girls made my job easy and we kept to our clinical processes.
"In a way, for the opposition it is the best time to give up a three so they have nine ends to chase us and make up for it, but we just made sure we didn't give away any chances and we were in full control of that game.
"We have a tough game ahead against the Swiss and obviously they have a lot of home support here in the arena.
"However the Scottish supporters arrived last night so they will make plenty of noise for us too and we will just aim to keep it going. We are looking forward to it."
But Kyle Smith's rink couldn't follow in their compatriots' footsteps on the ice as they fell to their third defeat of the championships.
Facing an unbeaten Swiss side, Team Smith put up a strong fight against their opponents – opening the scoring with a point in the first end – before succumbing to a 9-4 loss.
Defeat sees them sit joint third in the men's team standings alongside Germany and Norway, with just one round robin match to come against the Netherlands as they look to progress to the semi-finals.
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