Sochi 2014: Great Britain's curlers face battle to reach semi-finals

Great Britain's curlers face decisive round-robin matches on Monday as they look to secure semi-final places at the Winter Olympics.

The British women take on hosts Russia at 05:00 GMT and Denmark at 15:00, while the men play China at 10:00.

If the women win both matches they will qualify, while victory over China would guarantee the men at least a play-off.

A tie is possible in both events, with a day set aside on Tuesday for any play-off matches required.

Sweden and Canada have already qualified for the men's semi-finals, and David Murdoch's men could have joined them on Sunday but they were beaten 7-6 by Norway to leave the two teams tied in fourth place, with China in third.

A win against China on Monday assures Great Britain of at least a tie-breaker on Tuesday, and perhaps a direct semi-final slot depending on Norway's result against Denmark.

The momentum of the match against Norway changed in the fourth end when Murdoch made an error, scoring only one when an easy two appeared ton be on offer.

That meant Norway, needing a win to stay in contention for the semi-finals, were able to control the remainder of the game with the hammer, and in the final end they scored the one point they needed for victory.

"I had a couple of bad ones out there," said Murdoch. "We had them on the ropes a little bit a few times and never really took our chances.

"We could have been a bit more clinical and been in front a lot earlier.

"We showed that we are playing some good stuff in our first five and, certainly our last five, we played some decent stuff as well. We are going to have to come out tough tomorrow."

Britain's women lost 8-6 to Switzerland on Saturday to leave their semi-final hopes in the balance, with four wins and three losses so far.

"We are not down and out - we have two games to go, said skip Eve Muirhead. "We need to stay relaxed and come out and enjoy it against Russia and Denmark."

Scenarios for Great Britain's men

- GB are through if they beat China and Norway lose to Denmark. GB would be deemed to have finished third having beaten China in the round robin.

- GB are eliminated if they lose against China and Norway beat Denmark.

- If GB and Norway both lose they will play an elimination match to determines who finishes fourth in the group and advances to the semi-finals.

- If GB and Norway both win then China, GB and Norway would all have identical records and play-off matches would be required.

Scenarios for Great Britain's women

- If GB win both their matches on 17 February they are through in either second, third or fourth depending on Sweden and China's results.

- If GB win one of their remaining matches they will either finish in the top four by rights or in a tie for fourth. In the latter scenario, they would then face an elimination match or matches (if there are multiple teams tied for fourth) to determine whether they advance to the semi-finals.

- If GB lose both matches they could still finish in a tie for fourth. As above, they would then face elimination matches to determine whether they advance.

For a gallery of images from today's action in Sochi go to the BBC Sport Facebook page.