Switzerland's new-look men's team has qualified for the final of the 2006 Le Gruyère European Curling Championship.

2002 Olympic bronze medallist skip Andreas Schwaller, now teamed with former world junior champion skip Ralph Stöckli at third stone, grabbed three points over the final two ends to pull away from Scotland's David Murdoch 9-5 and is through to Saturday afternoon's final (live on Eurosport, 3:30pm local).

The Swiss will face Murdoch again, after the defending world champions dropped down to the semi-final and beat Sweden's Per Carlsen 5-2. The Swedes had defeated Germany's former European champion Sebastian Stock 6-4 in the Page 3/4 game to advance. Carlsen will be awarded the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the women's Page playoff 1/2 match saw Italy's Diana Gaspari upend previously undefeated Russia 7-5 to qualify for Saturday's women’s final (Sunday morning on Eurosport). The Russians then recovered in the semi-final to defeat Mirjam Ott of Switzerland by a 7-5 count on the strength of a stunning last-rock raise double-takeout and will face Italy in the final-game rematch. Ott had earlier upended Scotland's Rhona Martin 8-3 in the women's Page 3/4 matchup.

Both top two round-robin finishers in men's and women's play will meet again, for the third time in the competition, in the European Championship finals.

"It was finally time to beat Murdoch," said Stöckli, a rival Swiss skip who was appointed to the starting lineup just weeks before the start of the event.

"I have had very bad losses to (Murdoch), all the time, and then you start to get deja vu. So obviously I needed to play with Andi to beat him."

Scotland had beaten the Swiss 8-3 in the round-robin but, in comparison to Stöckli, Schwaller is armed with a better career head-to-record against Murdoch, also the 2003 European champion.

"I like to play him," said Schwaller. "It's always a great game and there are no surprises. Unless they miss, then that's a surprise.

"I was hoping we would play strong early in the week and we did. We were very good today. I knew if I had a good week myself we would be very close, and now we are in the final."

The game matched up well in statistics, with both Schwaller and Murdoch firing a 78 in shooting percentage. Overall, the Swiss outshot the Scots 85 per cent to 80 per cent.

The hometown Swiss teams have benefitted from strong boisterious crowds during the week, and Schwaller is excited by the prospect of a packed St. Jakob Arena on Saturday. However, he has a message for Swiss curling officials.

"If we get a thousand new spectators tomorrow, that doesn't mean we will get 1,000 new curlers," he said. "They need to make the transfer from fan to participant, and we have to try harder to make this happen."

Switzerland, which boasts a strong Olympic curling legacy, has 50 dedicated club facilities and over 13,000 participants. 8,000 of those are registered with the national association.

The women's semi-final marked the bronze-coloured end of a wild ride for Ott's team, last year's European and Olympic silver medallists. Alternate Manuela Kormann was brought into the lineup after their 0-3 start, and they reeled off seven straight wins before falling to Russian skip Ludmila Privivkova in the semi. Along the way, Ott careened and lurched through her victories, surrendering late steals before prevailing, and even suffering a spectacular fall during a winning shot attempt on Wednesday.