Once the clanking of granite stopped, the medal-match equation became clearer. The men - who have played all of their nine round-robin matches - need either Italy or Norway to lose to the already-qualified Switzerland or Canada respectively on Thursday morning.

If one of them does, Mouat's men will be in the last four later in the day with their form stress-tested and their hopes of upgrading their silver medal from four years ago revitalised.

"This is a horrible position to be in, watching other games and hoping results go our way," the British skip told BBC Sport.

"But we're just going to have to keep our fingers and toes crossed and see what happens. "

The women still have work of their own to do on Thursday.

They must win a third game in a row - against hosts Italy (13:05 GMT) - and hope Switzerland beat the US if they are to make Friday's semis.

The inexperienced rink - with only Jen Dodds surviving from the 2022 gold-medal winning team - finished sixth in last year's World Championships and do seem to be hitting form at the right time.

Morrison, especially, has grown into this tournament and it is her bold shot-making that underpinned Wednesday's two victories, which have hauled this team back to the brink of a shot at the medals.

"That was the proper Team Morrison out there," Dodds told BBC Sport.

"We have the talent of winning ugly but, tonight, that is how we like to perform. "Now roll on tomorrow and embrace the experience and the noise

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