Sweden vs. South Korea Set for Women's Curling Gold-Medal Match

Sweden will face off against South Korea for the gold medal in women's curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics after they defeated respective semifinal opponents Great Britain and Japan on Friday.

Great Britain did their utmost to stay within reach of gold but will fight for a second consecutive bronze after the Swedes overpowered them to become back-to-back gold-medal finalists.

The bronze-medal matchup between Japan and Great Britain will take place on Saturday morning (6:05 a.m. ET) before the gold-medal decider later in the evening (7:05 p.m. ET).

A scoreless first end suggested the meeting between Great Britain and Sweden would be a close one, with the former having been made to settle for what was a disappointing bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

There was small controversy in the second end when Britain's Anna Sloan slightly slowed the path of a ricocheting stone on her turn, although Sweden were sporting to settle for shifting the stone a few inches further from the house.

Sweden's good nature ended there, though, and they made up for missing a score in the first end with a double take-out in the second thanks to Anna Hasselborg's expertly judged hammer.

Great Britain would have pulled level in the third end were it not for a woefully overthrown stone from captain Eve Muirhead, per the Press Association's Mark Staniforth:

Neither team could afford such a slip, but Sweden returned the favour an end later. Sportsbeat's James Toney commented on Hasselborg's own error in judgement as her final stone just stayed inside high on the right:

The British then recorded an ideal finish before the half-time break as Muirhead pulled off a hugely difficult shot to score two and pull level. It looked as though Hasselborg had done enough to tuck her last red out of the way behind Britain's yellow, but the latter's captain knocked the opposition out to score two and head in 3-3 at the interval.

The Swedes always looked one step ahead, however, and took a 6-3 lead as Hasselborg continued to blast any obstacles out of her path, but the worst was yet to come.

Muirhead fell just short in attempting to bypass the guard with her final stone of the seventh end, leaving Sweden to notch their first triple of the match. Curling writer Derek MacEwen noted Britain's fleeting gold-medal chances:

Sweden illustrated their quality in the eighth end, when a superb Sloan stone put Britain in sight of a potential triple only for Sara McManus to take out two in one. Muirhead nevertheless played a brilliant shot—albeit too weak to manage a three—through the eye of the needle to bounce Sweden out of the house and reduce their lead to 8-5 with two ends left.

Great Britain's hopes of a revival were officially extinguished when the superior Swedes outmanoeuvred them to a tee, rounding off a pristine performance with a two and ending Muirhead's hope of clinching Olympic gold.

South Korea could hardly have hoped for a more opportune start to proceedings in their semi-final clash with Japan. Kim Eun-jung's shot pulled off a three-pointer at match's beginning, per CBC's Devin Heroux:

Skip Satsuki Fujisawa hit back with a double take-out in the second end to respond, and the pair exchanged one-pointers in the third and fourth ends, with the Koreans led 4-3 heading into the fifth.

Japan left themselves open to a clear-out before going in for the break, and Kim once again made them pay, as the BBC's Alasdair Lamont noted a three-point for the hosts with five ends remaining:

South Korea were more ruthless with the hammer in their possession, and while another single for Japan in the sixth end saw them again reduce the deficit to two points, they were struggling to reel their opponents in.

The hosts continued to chip ahead through Kim and drew for a single in the eighth end, but Japan all of a sudden opened the match up for a climactic finish by landing with their hammer to score a double in the ninth end.

The pair were forced to an extra end after Korean skip Kim just overhit her attempt to clear Japan's stone from the house. However, she made up for it with a brilliant penultimate stone in the decider, leaving Japan with too much work to do with their final attempt.

South Korea's team have kept a strong front throughout this competition but were reduced to floods of tears when Kim landed closer to home with her final stone to seal an 8-7 win and book their place in the gold-medal matchup.