Moldova's national handball team was defeated narrowly by Georgia, 38-34, in the final qualifier for the European “Challenge Trophy” Championship, Info-Prim Neo reports. Georgia's victory procured them a place in the finals alongside Finland, in the Austrian city of Linz, on January 23. The visitors took the initiative already in the early stages of the game as the guests were forced into defense by the huge Georgian players. The offensive approach gave the visitors a lead of six goals after the first half. Encouraged by the 1,200 attendance, the Tricolors swung into a higher gear in the second half, but several mistakes in the defense thwarted their effort. The only thing that the Moldovan team ultimately managed to do was to narrow the score gap to four goals. Moldova's man of the match was Alxandru Pervanciuc, who scored 12 goals. He also won the title of the competition's top scorer, with 31 goals. After the game, Moldova coach Ruslan Verejan lamented the errors of his side: “We had a disastrous start by letting the Georgians score repeatedly. The fatigue from our previous encounter with Azerbaijan added to that. We tried to reduce the difference in the second half but the multiple mistakes in the defense were decisive”. At the same time, Georgian manager Merab Metreveli said his pupils deserved to win: “First, the hosts had squad problems. And of course, we were physically stronger, we have the greatest average height from among all the competing teams. We also knew how to capitalize on every mistake of the Moldovans. Two years ago in Tbilisi Moldova offered a much better game”.