With history in their favour - having won ten of their last eleven encounters with Germany - Italy seek to put an end to their four-match losing streak thus far in the 2-18 FIVB Volleyball Nations League, when they take to the court again Wednesday in Suwon.
Head-to-Head
• Italy have won 10 of their last 11 matches against German sides at world level major tournaments. They had lost three of the first four against them.
• The women's world level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup.
• Italy faced Germany most recently at world level in their 3-1 win at the 2014 World Championships.
• Germany last won versus Italy at major world level in 2012 when they won 3-0 at the World Grand Prix. It was a hard-fought straight-sets victory as two of the three sets went beyond 25 points: 30-28, 25-13, 26-24.
• At the European Championships, Germany won the last encounter: 3-0 in the 2011 semifinals.
Italy
• Italy and Argentina are the only teams to have lost all four VNL matches.
• This is the first time Italy have lost each of their opening four matches at their debut appearance in a world level major tournament. They lost their first five matches at the European Championships, but they were across two editions (1951 and 1967).
• Italy have lost their last five major world level matches, since a 3-1 win against China in the semifinals at last year's World Grand Prix. The last time they had a longer losing streak in matches at major world level was from 1999 to 2000 (8).
• Anastasia Guerra (46) is Italy's leading VNL scorer.
Germany
• Germany won their opening VNL match, 3-1 against Brazil, but have lost all three since.
• Germany's current three-match VNL losing streak came after they had lost only one of their previous 11 matches at world level major tournaments.
• Germany could lose four consecutive matches at world level major tournaments for the first time since a run of 10 in a row stretching across the World Grand Prix in 2016 and 2017.
• Louisa Lippmann (70) and Maren Fromm (60) have both scored at least 60 VNL points.