Milan, Italy, September 22, 2018 – The Netherlands and Finland will meet for the first time since 1962 in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.
Head-to-Head
• The only previous meeting at the World Championship was a 3-0 victory by Netherlands in 1962.
• These nations also met at 10 other world level major tournaments, with Netherlands winning nine times and Finland once (all in World League).
• World level major tournaments are Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• Finland won four of their seven meetings at European Championships, including their most recent one in 2013.
Netherlands
• Netherlands lost their first match in the second round - 3-0 against Russia. They had taken 11 points from the first round.
• Netherlands could lose back-to-back World Championship matches within a single tournament for the first time since 1998, when they lost three in a row in straight sets.
• Netherlands' last straight-sets win in the tournament came in their last participation, in 2002, against Greece. They have conceded at least one set in each of the last 11 World Championship matches.
• Thijs ter Horst was the only Dutch player in the defeat against Russia to score more than 10 points. He finished on 13 points (10 spikes, 3 stuff blocks).
Finland
• Finland have won two and lost four matches at the 2018 World Championship.
• Finland need one more victory to have won at least three matches in six successive World Championships (previously 1966, 1970, 1978, 1982 and 2014). Only in 1952 (0) and 1962 (1) they won fewer than three matches.
• Finland could lose three straight World Championship matches for the first time in this tournament. They lost three in a row in 2014, against Russia, Canada and China.
• In all six matches involving Finland at the 2018 World Championship, the team winning the first set also won the match.