Georgia take the lead in Group B after win against Luxembourg

After Italy and Belgium had already secured wins in the EHF EURO 2018 Qualification on Wednesday, Georgia followed suit on Thursday and kept their hopes alive for making it to the next stage with a close and thrilling victory against Luxembourg.

Ahead of the re-match on Sunday, the team of head coach Irakli Kekelidze top the ranking of Group B with four points.

Group B: Georgia vs Luxembourg 17:16 (11:7)

After only seven minutes of play, Luxembourg coach Adrian Stot had to put his green card on the officials’ table as his team was trailing 1:5.

Georgia had punished every mistake of the guests with a brilliant start despite missing their injured key players Vladimir Rusia, Rati Mskhvildze and Sergo Datukashvili.

However, the timeout showed no straight impact on Luxembourg’s performance. Georgia kept their four-goal lead until the break, mainly thanks to their top scorer Revas Chanturia, who scored five of his in total seven goals in the first half.

But Luxembourg clearly improved after the break, while Georgia’s efficiency in attack decreased in a defence-orientated match.

Their lead melted goal after and goal and with two and a half minutes left to play Luxembourg levelled the game at 16:16.

The time had come for Irakli Kekelidze’s last timeout – and it paid off.

Lesko Tsitelishvili netted to bring the score to 17:16 for Georgia where it stayed until the final whistle.

Best scorer for Luxembourg was Tom Meis with four goals.

Luxembourg will now host Georgia for the second leg match on Saturday, before facing Estonia in a double-header in June.

Only the winners of the three groups in this qualification phase stay in the race for the Men's EHF EURO 2018.