Eve Muirhead's Scottish women had to settle for silver when Russia beat them by 6-4 in the final of the Le Gruyere European Curling Championship, in Esbjerg, Denmark.

This was a tight game all the way and, after blanking the first end, Russia's skip Anna Sidorova drew her last stone of the second end into the house to open the scoring with two points. Muirhead responded straightaway, drawing her last stone of the third end into the house for two points to level the score.

The teams swapped singles in the next two ends and Russia took the lead again – at 4-3 - with another draw shot in the sixth end.

The Scots blanked the seventh end and then the turning point of the game came in the eighth end, when Muirhead attempted a double take-out which just missed its second target stone, giving Russia a steal of one and a 5-3 lead, rather than producing three points for the Scots that would have turned the game for them.

After this, the Scot were chasing the game and Muirhead could only draw for one point in the ninth end, giving the Russians a 5-4 lead as well as last stone advantage in the tenth.

In a tense tenth end, both Muirhead and Sidorova were too heavy with their first draw-shots, but when Muirhead over-compensated with her final draw of the, she came up short and left the Russians with a stone in counting position, meaning the Russian team could celebrate their 6-4 win without having to deliver their last stone.

The last time Muirhead won this title was in 2011 in Moscow, and the Scottish women finished this event with only two losses during the week - their opener against Denmark and a round-robin defeat by the Russians.

Afterwards, a disappointed Muirhead could not help reflecting on the shot that got away in the eighth end, saying, "I came a centimetre away from making it pay in that eighth end."

More generally, she added, "silver's not what we wanted and I thought we were good enough to get that gold medal, but Russia did play great out. Anna Sidorova was fantastic and we just weren't good enough. I always come into these events looking for gold, so it's pretty gutting. This is going to be in my head for a long time - you always want to win the big Championships and unfortunately it didn't happen. There's nothing I can do about it now."

Looking forward she added, " Overall, this week's been a good performance. We got off to a slow start against Denmark, in our opener, but since then we became more consistent. I'm really pleased with the way the girl have played all week. We're a really solid team, so now hopefully we can fight hard to win the Scottish Championships and get another chance at the worlds."

Meanwhile, Russia's Sidorova was gracious about her opponents saying, "they really are such great competitors. We've played against them a couple times this year and they are a really tough team to play. If you want to beat them you have to be even better, and that's not easy."

Earlier in the week, the young Scottish men's team, skipped by Kyle Smith, had finished fifth overall on what was their first senior outing at this level. They had to suffer the heartache of a one point loss to eventual winners Sweden, losing a tie-breaker by 7-8. However, like the women, with this performance, they safely qualified Scotland for the World Championships nest spring.