FÜSSEN – The Bundesleistungszentrum Arena exploded with the roar of the home crowd as German's Andy Kapp won a thrilling match 8-7 over Scotland's David Murdoch at the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

Down 7-6 playing the 10th end, third Uli Kapp made a brilliant runback double-takeout – twice in a row – to lie two. After brother Andy Kapp missed his come-around tap attempt, Murdoch made an angle freeze to lie two partially behind cover. Kapp's final stone of the game haired the guard, split both Scottish counters out of the rings and the celebrations began.

The elder Kapp wore a bloodstained jersey after the match.

"It was a war out there," he joked. "Actually, my finger is bleeding from the sweeping.

"It's a great game against these guys, always," Kapp said. "I said that against this team, we do not want to play the extra end, we have to try and win it now." 

Germany climbed to 2-1, tied with Sweden and Denmark. Swden's Peja Londholm beat Finland's kalle Kiiskinen 8-5 while the Danes lost their first game of the tournament to Norway by a 10-4 count.

Thomas Ulsrud of Oslo sits in first place at 3-0, tied with Switzerland's Toni Müller, who beat Italy's Joel Retornaz 8-3.

In the other men's third-round match, France's Thomas Dufour got on the board with a 7-6, extra end win over winless Czech Republic.

Murdoch sits at 1-2, an unexpected position for last year's silver medallist, who has already won four international titles for Scotland in his young career.

"It's unfortunate, we got off to a bad start," said Murdoch.

"These teams are getting better every year, and it's getting tougher out there."

In women's play, the troubles continued for Germany's Andrea Schopp, as she fell 7-6 to Italy's Diana gaspari in an extra end. The Germans are tied for last place with the Czech Republic at 0-3.

Sweden's Anette Norberg edged Swiss rival Mirjam Ott 6-5 to stay in first place at 3-0, tied with Scotland's Kelly Wood, a 9-3 winner over Finland. Norberg defeated Ott in the 2006 Olympic final.

Tied at 2-1 are the Swiss, Denmark's Lene Nielsen and defending champions Russia. The Danes edged a stubborn Austrian team 8-7 in an extra end, while Moscow's Ludmila Privivkova thumped the Czech Republic 9-3.

In evening action, Norberg and Wood battle for sole bragging rights at the top of the leaderboard. In other matches, Germany meets Austria, Switzerland plays Italy, Russia battles Finland and the Czech Republic takes on Denmark.