Italy defeat puts GB’s men into curling semi-finals

Team GB’s men’s curlers are now just two victories away from a remarkable Winter Olympic gold after sneaking into Thursday’s semi-finals in Cortina.

Bruce Mouat’s world champions were on the brink of a shock early exit in Italy after losing their penultimate round-robin match to Canada.

However, a comprehensive victory over the United States on Wednesday – coupled with favourable results elsewhere – revived their hopes.

And Italy’s defeat by Switzerland on Thursday morning ensured the British rink would advance to a last-four meeting with the unbeaten Swiss at 18:05 GMT.

Should the Scottish quartet win that repeat of last April’s world final, they will play in Saturday’s gold-medal contest (18:05) and would be guaranteed to at least match the silver they won in Beijing four years ago.

Lose, and they will go for bronze on Friday (18:05) against whoever loses the other semi between Canada and Norway, who edged GB into fourth in the standings on the head-to-head record.