Scotland’s World Champion and world number one ranked men powered into the play-offs with a perfect record at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships in Finland, as they registered an 8-5 win over medal rivals Italy in their final match of the round-robin phase.
Four time winners of this title, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan are now looking to repeat their achievement of four years ago when they won all nine round-robin matches, before going on to lift the trophy and they know they can take confidence into the decisive games.
“We’re really happy with the performance there,” said skip Mouat.
“It was a really good way to finish the round robin phase and we just wanted to continue our momentum going forward into the play-offs. 
“I am pleased with the way we all turned up for that game and kind of treated it like it was already a play-off game.”
For the first time in the tournament, they had to start without last stone advantage against the Italians, but a three at the third end gave them the upper hand and when they stole at the sixth to move 5-2 clear, the bulk of the hard work was done.
However having had to win that one the harder way, Mouat is all the more pleased that they have earned the right to avoid having to do so again.
“We will have hammer in both play-offs regardless of whether we are in the final or bronze medal game,” he noted.
“It is nice to know we have done really well with the hammer throughout the week and converted early in the games and that is what we are going to have to do tomorrow against Sweden.
“We knew we were going to have to play well against the Italians and wanted to treat it like a play-off game, so I am proud of how we stuck together and just had a lot of momentum throughout the game with the three in the third end which was obviously a big one for us.”
Two days after beating them in the round-robin, they now prepare to meet Sweden’s seven time world and seven time European Champions in the semi-finals, in the latest re-match of the 2022 Winter Olympic final.
“It wouldn’t be a European play-off game without playing the Swedes I guess,” said Mouat.
“We seem to play them all the time at the Europeans and we have met them a lot at these play-off stages, so it is going to be an exciting game tomorrow and it will be a tight affair I am sure.”
Earlier in the day, Scotland’s women had ensured that they, too, would be involved in the medal matches after their win over Germany and Italy’s loss to Czechia meant that not only did they finish in a play-off spot, but claimed third place, so avoiding top seeds Sweden in the semi-finals and instead taking on Switzerland, who finished in second place after the round-robin games.
Watch live games on The Curling Channel
Selected games will be available on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online, as follows:
Semi Final
Scotland women v Switzerland -17.00 GMT – Thursday 27 November
Semi Final
Scotland men v Sweden - 07.00 GMT - Friday 28 November
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat (Skip)
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (Skip)
Fay Henderson (alternate)
Images: Scottish Curling & World Curling
