Milan, Italy, September 23, 2018 - Italy play their
final match in the 2nd Round of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World
Championship against the Netherlands.
Head-to-Head
· Italy and Netherlands have won seven times before at the World Championship, with Netherlands winning four times and Italy three times, including 3-1 in the 1994 final.
· Italy have won the last six meetings at world level major tournaments, with the last meeting coming in the 2009 World League (Italy winning all four meetings in the 2009 World League).
· World level major tournaments are Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
· These nations have met in several finals. Italy won the 1990 World League final, the 1993 European Championship final, the 1994 World Championship final and the 1995 European Championship final, while Netherlands won the 1996 World League final and the 1996 Olympic Games final.
· Four of these six finals were decided in five sets.
Italy
· Co-hosts Italy won the first six 2018 World Championship matches, before losing in five sets against Russia on Saturday.
· Italy have won four matches in straight sets at the 2018 World Championship. The last time they had more straight-set wins at a single World Championship was in 1998 (8).
· Italy could lose back-to-back World Championship matches for the first time since five straight during the 2014 World Championship.
· Italy could win their seventh match at the 2018 World Championship. Only in 2006 (8) and 1998 (11) they had more.
Netherlands
· Netherlands have five wins and two defeats at the 2018 World Championship.
· Netherlands could win six matches at a single World Championship for the first time since 1998, when they had eight, which equalled the team record from 1962 back then.
· Ever since the start of the 1998 campaign, Netherlands have won all matches in which they claimed at least one set. Their eight defeats in 1998, 2002 and 2018 combined, have all been in straight sets.
· Nimir Abdel-Aziz led his team in scoring in the 3-1 win over Finland on Saturday. He also tops the Dutch with 99 total points in the tournament.