Scotland men missed out on a fourth successive European Curling Championship title as Germany sealed a 9-7 win on the final stone.

Bruce Mouat’s rink led 2-0 after the first end but Marc Muskatewitz’s Germany were 4-2 up by the end of the third.

The Scots got back level at the next end and the lead changed hands over the next three ends before the Germans moved 8-6 in front.

That gap was quickly reduced to one in the penultimate end and Muskatewitz guided his side to the gold medal at the 10th end.

“I thought we were playing well enough to win the championship, but sometimes you don’t have a great game,” Mouat said. “It’s just disappointing that it happened in the gold medal match.

“I never performed as well as I was hoping to. I missed a few line calls and caused some tough misses for the guys, but we’re going to try to bounce back.

“If someone had told me that by the age of 30 I would have four gold medals and a silver at the Europeans, I would have been very impressed. But in the moment it’s hard to get over how gutted we’re feeling that we didn’t get the fifth gold.”

Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan and alternate Kyle Waddell made up the Scottish team, while Benjamin Kapp, Felix Messenzehl, Johannes Scheuerl and alternate Mario Trevisiol formed the German rink with Muskatewitz.

Olympic silver medalist Mouat had also been successful in the 2018 European final and he also featured at this year’s World Championships.