Mouat 'in good place' for Olympics after Scots settle for Euro bronze

European Curling Championships

Where: Lohja, Finland When: 22-29 November

Coverage: Watch selected games live on the BBC Sport website & app and the BBC iPlayer

Bruce Mouat insisted his rink are "in a good spot" for February's Winter Olympics despite Scotland having to settle for bronze at the European Curling Championships in Finland.

Rebecca Morrison's rink has qualified for Saturday's women's final, but Mouat's world champion rink lost 8-5 in their semi-final despite having sailed through the round-robin phase with a 100% record.

It means the Swedes, led by former world champion Niklas Edin, will go for an eighth European title against Yannick Schwaller's Switzerland, who lost to the Scots in this season's world final, on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Scots beat Joel Retornaz's Italy, who had lost 8-7 to the Swiss in their semi-final, in Friday's third-place play-off.

Mouat, runner-up last year and a four-time winner, said: "It was a good week and we were disappointed that we didn't manage to cap it all with two wins in the play-offs.

"But we knew that we were playing well. We didn't play our best in the semi-final, that was the disappointment, but we all just regrouped pretty well, had a decent chat over some food and decided we wanted to come away with something from the week.

"I am very happy with where we are. We dominated the round robin and we are potentially going to be playing seven of them at the Olympics.

"We are in a good spot and, if we turn up at the Olympics and play like we did here, we are going to be a tough team to beat and we just have to make sure we are doing that in every game rather than 10 out of the 11."

The Italians scored one at the opening end against the Scots, but Mouat's rink were always in control after a two at the second and threes at the sixth and eighth ends secured bronze.

Earlier, the Swedes, who lost three of their opening nine games, took two in the seventh and ninth ends to lead 7-5 against the Scots and Mouat could not extend a tense tie when he was a fraction out with his final stone.

On Thursday, Scotland's women continued their revival in Finland by beating Corrie Huerlimann's Switzerland in their semi-final.

The Scots - bronze medallists last year and ranked second going into this tournament - lost four of their opening six matches but won their final three round-robin games to scrape into the knockout matches.

Then, in a dominant performance, Morrison's rink prevailed 8-5 to earn a place in the final against Anna Hasselborg's Sweden.

Former world and European champion Hasselborg's rink topped the round robin with eight wins out of nine, including a 7-6 defeat of Scotland, before beating Marianne Roervik's Norwegians 8-4 in the semi-finals.

Scottish third Jen Dodds, who won European gold in 2021, said: "Reaching our first European final together and that is a great achievement for us.

"We got our bronze medal last year, which back then we were so happy with, and one of our goals for this season was to upgrade that and get to the final.

"Now we are really looking forward to getting that opportunity to compete in it."

The final will be live on the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app at 08:00 GMT on Saturday.