European Curling Championships: Scotland to face reigning champions Sweden in final
- Published
Scotland skip Bruce Mouat enjoyed a good opening win in Lillehammer
Scotland's men will face reigning title holders Sweden in the final of the European Curling Championships after a resounding 9-3 win over hosts Norway.
The Swedes, who denied Scotland gold in this year's World Championship final, defeated Italy 6-3 to progress.
Bruce Mouat's rink, having beaten Norway 8-3 the previous day to finish the round-robin with a perfect record, went 3-0 up with the skip's double in the opening end and cruised to victory.
"That was very smooth," said Mouat.
"It didn't feel like we had any hiccups at all.
"We were a bit frustrated in the game against Norway yesterday because we weren't making everything.
"But today we just felt like it was ours for the win and we played maybe our best game so far this week, which puts us in a very good place going into the final."
While Scotland overcame Sweden in their round-robin opener, and when they met in the 2018 final to claim their sole European title, they were beaten by Niklas Edin's rink in the World Championship final in April.
The Swedes have dominated recent European Championships, winning five of the past six titles.
Scotland's women also face Sweden for gold on Saturday (11:00 GMT), followed by the men's final (16:00), with both matches live on the BBC Sport website and app.
"We're having a great week here and with 10 wins and zero losses we're feeling really good going into tomorrow's final against Niklas," said Mouat, whose team comprises Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan.
"It is nice to have a good run heading into that game and obviously we had a good game against them in the first match of the round-robin game.
"We know they'll give us a good run for our money, but we're playing well so we're very confident."
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