Turin, Italy, September 26, 2018 - Serbia meet defending champions Poland Thursday, seeking one set that will see them through to Saturday's semifinals of the 2018 FIVB World Championship. That would leave Poland and hosts Italy to decide the other ticket of this pool when they clash on Friday.
But in seven previous encounters with Poland and World Championship level, Serbia have never ever won - including when the two met last week in the 2nd Round of this year's competition and Poland won in straight sets.
Head-to-Head
• Poland face Serbia for the second time in a row at the 2018 World Championship after winning 3-0 on 23 September.
• Bartosz Kurek scored 21 points in that 3-0 win versus Serbia and Artur Szalpuk added 15 points.
• Poland have a perfect record against Serbia (including Yugoslavia and Serbia & Montenegro) at World Championships, winning all seven encounters.
• Poland's 3-0 win at the 2018 World Championship ended a run of four defeats against Serbia at world level tournament.
• Serbia's beat Poland 3-0 in the 2018 Volleyball Nations League.
Poland
• Poland won all five matches in the first round of the 2018 World Championship, but then lost two of their three fixtures in the second round.
• Poland's two defeats in 2018 are already one more than they had in their entire 2014 World Championship campaign.
• Poland won their two matches in the 3rd round in 2014 both in five sets. They lost their only five-setter at the 2018 World Championship, 3-2 against Argentina.
• Artur Szalpuk is Poland's top scorer at the 2018 World Championship on 106 points.
Serbia
• Serbia started their third round with a 3-0 win over Italy in Turin on Wednesday.
• Serbia have won seven of their nine matches at the 2018 World Championships. The last time they recorded more wins in a single edition than this year (7) was in 2006 (8).
• Serbia have reached the semifinals in four of the last five editions of the World Championships, with 2014 as the only exception in that run. They went on to reach the final only once, in 1998 (lost against Italy).
• Aleksandar Atanasijevic is Serbia's top scorer in this tournament on 111 points. He scored a team-high 19 points in their 3-0 win against Italy.