CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Bruce Mouat's British men's team picked up a 9-4 round-robin win over Germany at the Winter Games on Sunday, while Olympic champions Sweden suffered their fourth loss of the campaign to leave their title defence on the brink.
World champions Britain took a 4-2 lead in the fourth end and never looked back, beating 2024 European champions Germany to record a fourth win at the Games.
"It's a young team. We've had lots of battles over them the last two, three, four seasons. We know it's always going to be a sticky one and a battle out there," said Britain's Hammy McMillan.
Britain have won four out of their five games so far, losing only to Italy. They are second in the standings behind Switzerland, who have four wins out of four.
"We can't complain to be honest. Only one little hiccup against Italy," McMillan added.
"I think our level of performance in that game was the same it has been in the other four. We're in a good position, we're playing well, we're playing consistently."
Niklas Edin's Sweden, who won gold in Beijing four years ago, struggled to read the conditions of the ice at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium as they slipped to an 8-5 defeat at the hands of a young United States team.
"Niklas is probably going to go down as the greatest of all time, Oskar's (Eriksson) been the best shooter in the world for many years," American curler Luc Violette said.
"Clearly they're not playing their very best right now, but the Olympics is tough. They have a ton of experience, so a key win for us."
Hosts Italy were beaten 10-7 by Norway.
Teams play nine matches in the round-robin stage, which continues later on Sunday. The top four advance to the semi-finals next week.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
