Romania’s national men’s handball team won the Carpathian Trophy against Georgia 31-25, a competition ahead of January’s European Championships.

Romania – Georgia 31-25 (14-14), in the final of the Carpathian Trophy men’s handball tournament

The main scorers of the final of the tournament were Tarice (8 goals) for Romania, respectively, Kbilashvili (8) for Georgia.

In the small final, Greece – Slovakia, score 35-23. Georgia beat Slovakia 32-27 and Romania beat Greece 31-27 in Thursday’s semifinal.

In two other friendly matches from previous training sessions, the team coached by Javi Pascual lost away to Montenegro (28-38) and France (21-40).

Romania will play its last friendlies in Switzerland at the Yellow Cup on January 4-6, 2024 against Switzerland (January 4, 7:00 p.m.), Argentina (January 5, 6:45 p.m.) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (January 6, 3:00 p.m.).

The national team will go to Germany on January 8, and will play in Group B of the European Championship with Austria (January 12), Spain (January 14) and Croatia (January 16). The first two places will go to the main groups.

The CE2024 final tournament will be held from January 10 to 28 in six German cities, with the opening match between Germany and Switzerland taking place in Dusseldorf and the final in Cologne, News.ro reports.

The Romanian national team last participated in the final tournament of the European Championship in 1996, when it took 9th place out of 12 participating teams.

The title of European champion in 2022 was won by Sweden.