FÜSSEN – Scotland's Kelly Wood defeated Denmark's Lene Nielsen 7-5 in the semi-final of the 2007 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

Scotland will meet Sweden, skipped by Anette Norberg, in the women's Championship final on Saturday (8:30 GMT on Eurosport, Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com).

Wood, the 2007 Bronze medallist, grabbed two points in the second end and stole the third end for 3-1 lead. Despite a Danish steal in the fifth end to tie the score, the Scots took another deuce in the sixth and added steals in both the seventh and eighth frames to build a 7-3 lead. A Danish deuce in the ninth frame came too little, too late.

"I'm delighted I fought off the Danish curse," said Wood.

At last March's 2007 Worlds in Japan, Wood held a 6-2 lead in the semi-final against Denmark, but watched it evaporate as the Scots lost 9-6. 

Denmark had finished first in the round-robin at 8-1, tied with Sweden and a full two games ahead of Scotland's 6-3 mark, which was good enough for fourth place. For three critical games up to their Page playoff victory against Switzerland, Scotland's coaching staff had replaced lead Lindsay Wood, the skip's sister, with alternate Karen Addison. But the younger Wood sister was back in the lineup against the Danes.

It was done just to adjust the team dynamic," said the elder Wood.

"We were just getting a little edgy, and we brought in Karen to settle things down. There's no better lead in the world than Lindsay, and now she's back and she was stellar today." 

Denmark's future in women's curling burns brightly with the Nielsen squad. They thumped Angelina Jensen's team – the 2007 World silver medallists – five straight times in the Danish playdowns to qualify for Füssen, and have an average age of only twenty, with two team members still eligible for World Junior play.

"It was a bad day," said Nielsen. "I don't think we did what we wanted. The ice was a struggle, it was very, very fast.

"Right now I'm disappointed, but I believe in a week or so our accomplishment will feel pretty good." 

Nielsen's male compatriots take the ice Friday evening against Scotland's David Murdoch in the men's semi-final, with the winner set to meet undefeated Norway on Saturday afternoon (live at 12:00 GMT on Eurosport, Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com).