It was mixed emotions for the British curling team in Vancouver as the women succumbed to a 9-8 defeat to Denmark which all but destroyed their medal hopes, while the men closed in on a semi-final spot with a comfortable 8-2 victory over Germany.

Britain’s men curling team forced their German opponents to concede after just eight of the scheduled ten ends with a dominating performance which left the team joint third with Switzerland following a record run of five wins and three defeats.

The men will now play the already qualified Norway on Tuesday in their final group game, where a victory should see them safely into the last four.

Skip David Murdoch believes his team are now guaranteed at least a tie-break game, although third place could be secured if Britain beat Norway and the Swiss lose their final match to France.

If that did happen, Britain would face second-placed Norway again in the semi-final, thereby avoiding the unbeaten Canadians.

"We're at least in a play-off, I think, but we're going to focus on getting a win [over Norway on Tuesday] because that's a semi-final berth [guaranteed]," Murdoch said.

While the men celebrated their success, Eve Muirhead accepted blame for the women’s 9-8 defeat against Denmark which has left the female curlers on the brink of Olympic elimination after a run of four straight defeats.

"It's very gutting. We've put so much work into all this and for it to end like this is pretty gutting,” said the 19-year-old Muirhead, who broke her curling broom by banging it on the ice in frustration after her misjudged final stone in the ninth end.

"There were a couple of slack shots in the second half, definitely by myself in the ninth end, which cost us a two there to go two down."

Britain face table leaders Canada on Tuesday knowing that only a surprise win over the hosts and a combination of other favourable results can keep their Olympic dream alive.