Bari, Italy, September 16, 2018 – Serbia will have their third FIVB World Championship encounter with Australia, hoping to break the 1-1 tie in wins on Sunday.
Head-to-Head
• Australia beat Serbia (incl. predecessors) once in seven previous meetings at world level major competitions. At the 2015 World League, they claimed a 3-2 victory.
• World level major competitions are: World Championships, Olympic Games, World Cup, World League, Grand Champions Cup and the Nations League.
• Twice these teams met at World Championships. In 1998, Serbia (then Serbia and Montenegro) beat Australia 3-0 in the first group stage, and in 2014 Serbia beat Australia 3-1 in the first round.
Serbia
• After losing their opener 3-2 against United States, Serbia rebounded with wins over Cameroon and Tunisia.
• In 2014, Serbia also lost their first match, but they won their next five matches at the tournament.
• Serbia have won at least one set in each of their last 11 World Championship matches, could make it 12 for the first time in the post-Yugoslavia era.
• Drazen Luburic is Serbia's most prolific scorer at the 2018 World Championship, scoring 36 total points.
Australia
• After losing their first two matches at the 2018 World Championship, Australia bounced back with a 3-1 victory over Cameroon.
• The win against Cameroon was their fifth victory in their World Championship history (30 defeats). Only in 2014 Australia managed to claim multiple victories at a single World Championship, against Cameroon and Venezuela.
• Australia could win back-to-back World Championship matches for the first time.
• Lincoln Alexander Williams is among the tournament's most prolific scorers. He has won 43 total points, despite playing only little more than two matches. He claimed 21 points against United States and 22 against Cameroon.