Lausanne, Switzerland, June 15, 2018 - Russia look for their fourth succesive win in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Saturday in Ludwigsburg when they meet Japan. Russia, the reigning European champions, have only lost to Japan, the reigning Asian champions, once in 32 previous games - and that was nine years ago, at the 2009 FIVB World League.
Head-to-Head
• Russia lost only one of their last 32 world level major competition matches against Japan, the 3-1 defeat on 11 July 2009 at the World League.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• Most recently these teams met at a major competition at the 2015 World Cup, when Russia beat Japan in five sets.
Russia
• Russia have won seven of their 10 VNL matches, including each of their last three.
• Five of those wins have come in straight sets. The last time Russia won six fixtures by a 3-0 scoreline at a single major world level tournament was at the 2015 World Cup.
• The 2015 World Cup was also the last world level tournament in which Russia recorded eight wins.
• Ilia Vlasov (13), Dmitry Volkov (13), Dmitry Muserskiy (11) and Egor Kliuka (11) all scored 10+ points against Argentina.
Japan
• Japan have won their last two VNL matches, both in five sets, against Italy and Germany.
• In the last eight years, Japan have only once won three successive matches at major world level. They won four in a row at the 2017 World League.
• Japan have won five of their 10 VNL fixtures, three of which went into a fifth set. They could win four five-setters at a single major world level tournament for the third time after the 1966 World Championships and the 1993 World League.
• Yuji Nishida scored a match-high 24 points on Friday of which 21 from spikes and three serves.