Lausanne, Switzerland, June 5, 2018 - Poland and Italy clash Friday in Osaka to open Week 3 of the 2018 FUVB Volleyball Nations League and they'll both be trying to pick up the pieces after the upsets they suffered at the close of Week 3 to Germany and Argentina respectively. It's the 20th time the two come head-to-head in a world competition, with Poland enjoying an ever so slight lead of 10-9.
Head-to-Head
• Italy and Poland will meet for the 20th time in a world level major competition. Poland have won 10 times versus nine victories for Italy.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• Poland have won five of their last six encounters with Italy at world level major tournaments, with the exception of a 3-1 defeat at the 2015 World Cup.
• One of those five victories for Poland came in front of a home crowd at the 2014 world championship (3-1 in second round), when Poland ultimately claimed the world title.
• Only two of the 19 encounters between these sides at major world level finished in three sets: 3-0 victories for Italy in the World League in 1999 and 2011.
Italy
• Italy started their 2018 VNL campaign with three victories in the first week, but they lost two of their three matches in the second week: 3-1 against Canada and 3-0 against hosts Argentina.
• Italy could now lose consecutive matches within a single world level major tournament for the first time since their final two fixtures of the 2017 World League (3-1 versus Canada and Belgium).
• Italy could lose consecutive world level major fixtures in straight sets for the first time since the 1988 Olympic Games, when they lost their opening two fixtures 3-0 against Brazil and Bulgaria.
• Italy had won at least one set in 15 consecutive matches in world level major competitions prior to the defeat against Argentina.
• Coming into week 3 of the VNL, Ivan Zaytsev (118) is one of two players on 100+ points, alongside China's Chuan Jiang (128).
• Zaytsev was Italy's top scorer against Argentina with 16 points, one point more than Osmany Juantorena (15).
Poland
• Poland won their first five matches of the 2018 NVNL until they suffered a 3-1 defeat against Germany in their final fixture of week 2.
• Poland are still in the lead of the VNL on 5 wins and 15 points. Second-placed Brazil also have 5 wins and 15 points, but have a worse set ratio than Poland.
• Poland could lose consecutive matches at world level major tournaments for the first time in a year: from 4 to 10 June 2017, Poland lost three successive World League matches.
• Four of Poland's five victories in the VNL came in straight sets.
• Poland could claim five straight-sets victories at a single major world level tournament for the first time since the 2012 World League (8 wins), when they won their only World League title.
• Michal Kubiak is Poland's top scorer on 68 points.
• Only Russia's Dmitriy Muserskiy (0.76) has a better average in blocks per set than Kubiak (0.65).