Eve Muirhead and her team of Scottish curlers have missed out on a medal at the Winter Olympics with Team GB finishing fourth after a 5-3 defeat to Japan.

Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray had lost to Sweden in Friday's semi-final but still had a chance of repeating bronze medal success in Sochi with a win against a Japan side that had never won a curling medal.

In a close, tense battle Japan blanked in both the sixth and seventh ends, keeping possession of the hammer and setting up a dramatic finale.

Japan skip Satsuki Fujisawa put pressure on Muirhead in the ninth and the Scot missed an attempted takeout, allowing Japan to take a 4-3 lead.

Britain had the scoring stone as Muirhead threw the last stone of the 10th end. Her attempt to score two points to win it at the last - or one to force another end - failed and her shot pushed a Japanese stone further into the house to seal defeat.

"The shot was there, we went for it, to get two," Muirhead told the BBC. "As a skip it's hard when you miss the last shot.

"I'm really proud of these girls, we have given it our best shot and it's hard to say we are going home with nothing.

"I'm devastated it didn't turn out how we wanted. It's going to take a bit of time to sink in. It's difficult when you don't make the last shot, that's what you train for day in, day out.

"It's been a long journey, these last four years. It's difficult to take to go home with nothing.

"The Olympics is a hard gig. We played our hearts out, left nothing out there."