Scotland skip Bruce Mouat expressed his relief as his last-stone nose-hit against Italy earned qualification for the semi-finals at the European Curling Championships 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia.
Heading into the match joint-second in the table, Scotland became the second team to qualify behind leaders Sweden.
Sending his rink through with a brilliant last stone in an extra end to give Scotland a 7-6 victory after going 4-1 down, Mouat was proud of his team’s determination.
“That was a really good grind by the guys,” said the Scotland skip.
“We fell behind at the start of the game, we didn’t really string a lot of shots together.
“So it was really nice to see that we could grind and get that ‘W’ on the board.”
The two leaders go head to head in session 15 of the Championships in a top-of-the-table clash in Tallinn, but both Scotland and Sweden will have confidence after their early qualifications.
Eve Muirhead continued the momentum of the women’s team by leading her rink to a convincing 9-2 victory over Germany.
Racing into a 4-1 lead at the halfway mark, Muirhead and her team then finished the game with an incredible four-point eighth end to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
The Scots currently sit in joint fourth place with Russia, whom they face next in the evening session in a crucial battle for qualification.
Sportsbeat 2018