The captain of the Team GB women's curling team, Eve Muirhead, has insisted that she and her teammates will improve following their disappointing 6-4 defeat in their Winter Olympics opener against Sweden.

Muirhead believes that there was very little difference between the two sides, but insists that they must maintain the level of play that they managed in the middle ends of the contest.

"It is always disappointing to lose the first match," Muirhead told Team GB's official website. "It was always going to be a tough one anyway, playing the European champions and world runners-up.

"They are one of the favourites but the game could have gone either way. We got off to a bit of a slow start, managed to claw it back to all square, but they played a fantastic shot in the seventh end that gave them that step ahead.

"I think when you go down a few it is always going to be a bit frustrating but I think we played well in the middle half of the game and if we can take that to the next game - and the next game is a new one - we will definitely step it up."

Britain's next match is against the United States on Tuesday.