Milan, Italy, September 23, 2018 - Russia play their final match in the 2nd Round of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship against Finland.
Head-to-Head
· This is the second World Championship meeting between these countries, following the 3-0 Russia win at the 2014 tournament.
· These teams also met seven times at the European Championship, with Russia winning on all seven occasions, with a combined set score of 21-3.
· The only victory by Finland in a world level major tournament was at the 2010 World League, when Finland won 3-1 at home in Tampere.
· World level major tournaments are Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
Russia
· After winning three and losing two matches in the first round at the 2018 World Championship, Russia started their second round with wins over Netherlands and Italy.
· Russia could win three matches in a row for the first time at this World Championship.
· Russia have five wins at the 2018 World Championship. In each of their last five World Championships (1998-2014) they had at least six victories.
· Maxim Mikhaylov leads Russia in scoring in the 2018 campaign with 98 total points.
Finland
· Finland have won two and lost five 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 four successive World Championship matches for the first time since 1982 (also 4).
· In all seven matches involving Finland at the 2018 World Championship, the team winning the first set also won the match.