Scotland men slip up at European curling before semi-finals live on BBC

Scotland's men will face unbeaten Sweden in the European Curling Championships semi-finals after losing their 100% record in the round-robin thanks to a disappointing 6-5 defeat by Italy.

It means that Grant Hardie's rink finish second in Group A behind Stefano Spiller's side, who face the Czech Republic in the other semi-final.

World and Olympic champion Oskar Eriksson's Swedes beat Poland 7-2 to secure top place in Group B with a 100% record, while Lukas Klima's Czechs qualified as runners-up despite losing their second match of the round robin - 8-4 to Sergio Vez's Spain.

Against Italy, the Scots were always playing catchb up after losing two at the opening end.

Hardie's rink did manage to edge ahead at 4-3 after the sixth end, but Italy took two at the seventh and, although the Scots then levelled to take the match into an extra-end, lead Ross Whyte was short with his final stone to concede defeat.

Before the men's semi-finals, Scotland's women are also in last-four action against Switzerland (12:30 GMT), with both matches live on the BBC iPlayer and online.

Fay Henderson's rink clinched a place in the last four with a game to spare after a tense extra-end triumph over Estonia on Thursday.

Having suffered their first defeat of the group stage earlier, losing 10-2 to Sweden, they hit back from 8-3 down to score three and then steal two to force an extra end.

Scotland managed a crucial steal to win it 9-8 when Estonia skip Marie Kaldvee was unable to clear a Scottish stone with a raise-takeout.

Henderson's rink ended off their Group B campaign with a 7-5 victory over Lithuania as they qualified as runners-up behind Isabella Wranaa's Swede's.

Alina Paetz, who won world and European gold in 2023, led her Swiss to five straight wins to top of Group A ahead of Evelina Barone's Latvians.