Muirhead left cursing the ‘curling gods’

Eve Muirhead was left cursing the “curling gods” and searching for her calculator as her Olympic ambitions teetered in Beijing.

The European champion and her rink slipped to a narrow 8-4 defeat to China in another game that went to the wire.

And it’s been that sort of week for Muirhead, playing well but just not getting any luck when she needs it most.

With only four teams to progress to the semi-finals, Team GB boast a 4-4 record with one round robin game to play against Russia today.

They could still advance but will need matches to go their way, with Switzerland beating Japan and Korea losing one of their two remaining games.

“We need to hope a few results go our way but because we beat Japan and

USA, we need to hope they drop a game,” said fourtime Olympian Muirhead.

“We need to come out and concentrate on our performance against Russia and focus on what we can do and then hope the curling gods are on our side.

“It’s been one of those weeks, sometimes you get the rubs and sometimes nothing seems to go your way. The teams we are playing are really up to beat us.

“It’s a little frustrating, we are playing really well as a team and we’ve had some great performances since winning the Europeans and coming through the qualifying tournament.”

This is Muirhead’s fourth Games but she’s only reached the knockout stages in one, when winning bronze in Sochi eight years ago.

Muirhead’s rink looked in control of their game with China early on but needed three in the final end to level the scores as the momentum swung against them.

And the skip was just fractions away from pulling off a wonder shot with her final stone that would have forced the extra end.

“I thought I’d made that shot, another millimetre and we’d have still been out there,” she added.

Coach David Murdoch, who won silver with the men’s rink in 2014, insists there are reasons for optimism, despite the precarious position of needing other results to fall in their favour.

“We’ve played really well and I don’t think many teams have out-curled us, we’ve just been on the wrong end of a couple of key shots,” he said.

“The girls need to stay super positive, no one has out-bossed us.”

CHINA CRISIS: Eve Muirhead was frustrated after seeing Team GB slip to a narrow 8-4 defeat to China, leaving her curling medal hopes on the brink.