Last updated on .From the section Winter Olympics

GB men into Olympic curling final

Britain's men reached the Sochi 2014 curling final with victory over Sweden, guaranteeing Team GB their best medal haul at a Winter Olympics since 1936.

World champions Sweden led 5-4 going into the 10th end but David Murdoch earned a 6-5 win with the final shot.

Not since 1936 in Germany have Britain won three medals at a Winter Games.

Match analysis Jackie Lockhart 2002 World curling gold medallist "What a tremendous end to the game. The boys have worked so hard to get to the Olympic final and the delight is clear on Dave Murdoch's face. They now have the chance for a gold medal. "Sweden's Niklas Edin knew it was the shot he had to play and he overthrew the stone. From his mistake, we took our chance. When you are given the opportunities, you must capitalise on them. It was looking like an extra end, but a great result for Britain. "We have got a great chance against Canada. There is a huge rivalry between the two countries and I don't expect to see anything less than 10 ends. Canada are beginning to come up in the tournament, but both teams are peaking at the right time."

GB's male curlers are guaranteed gold or silver in Friday's final against Canada to add to the gold of Lizzy Yarnold and Jenny Jones's bronze.

Yarnold won the women's skeleton event last Friday while Jones took snowboard slopestyle bronze 10 days ago.

"It's just incredible, I can't describe the feeling," Lockerbie's Murdoch, 35, told BBC Sport.

"We've trained so hard for this every day as a team, and made a lot of sacrifices. It's all paid off. I'm just so proud of the guys. I can't believe it, I really can't believe it."

Team-mate Greg Drummond said: "I'm not going to lie, it was pretty nerve-wracking, that last end. They made a couple of mistakes [too] so they were obviously feeling the same as us."

While Britain controlled much of the match, Murdoch's decision to take one rather than blank the eighth end set up a nervy finale.

Trailing by one in the last end but with the hammer, GB's Scott Andrews sent an off-course stone sailing through the house before Drummond played a similarly poor shot. Both had been exceptional to that point.

Those errors opened the door for Sweden. However, Swedish skip Niklas Edin failed to land his last shot and Murdoch kept his composure to score a game-winning two, punching the air as he did so.

Sweden will play China, beaten 10-6 by Canada, for bronze. Friday's final begins at 13:30 GMT.

"We'll have a day to think about our gameplan against Canada. We just need to keep doing what we're doing," said Murdoch.

Murdoch lost at the semi-final stage on his Olympic debut in 2006, while in 2010 - as the world champions and favourites - his rink failed to reach the knockout stage.

Sir David Attenborough's curling commentary

Now, by reaching the 2014 final and guaranteeing first or second place, the team become the first British men in 16 years to earn Winter Olympic medals.

Paul Attwood, Sean Olsson, Courtney Rumbolt and Dean Ward won four-man bobsleigh bronze for GB at Nagano 1998.

Britain's women can also win a curling medal if they defeat Switzerland for bronze on Thursday (08:30 GMT), while Elise Christie remains a medal hope in short track skating's 1,000m distance on Friday.

Four medals in Sochi, which remains achievable, would be Britain's best performance since the inaugural Winter Olympics of 1924 in Chamonix, France.

No British team has ever won five or more medals, nor multiple gold medals, in one edition of the Winter Games.