Milan, Italy, June 23, 2019 - Bruno Lima and Ezequiel Palacios both scored 15 points to help Argentina claim a victory against Serbia in the first match in Pool 14 of the 2019 men's FIVB Volleyball Nations League in Milan on Sunday.
Argentina-Serbia
Italy-Poland
Pre-match stats:
Argentina - Serbia (June 23, 2019)
Head-to-Head:
- This will be the 30th meeting between Argentina and Serbia (including predecessors) at a world level major tournament. Argentina won eight and lost 21 of the previous 29.
- World level major competitions are: FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
- Argentina lost their last four world level matches against Serbia, since a 3-0 victory against the team at the 2016 World League.
- Only once have Argentina recorded a longer losing streak against Serbia in world level matches, seven successive defeats from 2000-2005.
Argentina
- Argentina's five wins in the 2019 VNL are already one more than they had in 2018.
- Argentina have won nine matches in total in the VNL, and they won the first set in all of these wins. They suffered defeat in the last 11 VNL matches in which they lost the opening set.
- Cristian Poglajen (16) led Argentina in scoring versus Italy. With his 51 points in the 2019 VNL, Poglajen is Argentina's seventh highest scorer.
- Facundo Conte leads Argentina on 138 points.
- Agustín Loser had six stuff blocks in the match against Italy. His 0.45 average as blocker and his tally of 20 stuff blocks in the 2019 VNL is among the highest in the tournament.
- Santiago Danani is one of the best receivers with 100 excellents and an efficiency of 34.80.
Serbia
- Serbia's 3-2 loss against Poland on Saturday gave them a W5-L6 record in the 2019 VNL.
- Serbia had a W8-L4 record after four weeks (12 matches) in the 2018 VNL.
- Seven of Serbia's 11 matches this season have been decided in the fifth set, most of all teams in this year's VNL.
- Miran Kujundžic was Serbia's top scorer against Poland. His 72 points in total in the 2019 VNL are only the fifth-most among Serbian players.
- Dusan Petkovic leads Serbia in scoring in this year's VNL on 112 points. In 2018, Drazen Luburic was Serbia's top scorer in the preliminary round on 152 points.
Italy - Poland (June 23, 2019)
Head-to-Head
- Italy have won 10 world level major competition matches against Poland, losing 11.
- World level major competitions are: FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
- Italy won only two of their last eight world level matches against Poland, but one of those victories did come in the most recent meeting between these teams, in the third round of the 2018 World Championship (3-2).
- Italy could beat Poland in successive world level matches for the first time since they won two in a row at the 2014 World League.
Last year, these teams met in the VNL. Italy prevailed after five sets.
Italy
- Italy suffered their third defeat in the 2019 VNL when they lost 3-1 to Argentina on Saturday.
- Italy have never lost two VNL matches in a single round of matches (typically three at once).
- Italy's eight wins in this year's VNL are equal to their eight total wins in the VNL in 2018.
- Simone Giannelli's average of 0.36 is one of the highest in the Best Servers category.
- Giannelli (8.18) is also one of two players to have an average of more than 8.00 as Best Setter. Iran's Mir Saeid Marouflakrani (8.25) is the other player.
- Fabio Balaso is among the best diggers in this year's VNL. He has recorded 102 digs for an average of 2.62.
Poland
- Poland have a W7-L4 record in the 2019 VNL after winning their second five-setter in a row.
- Poland have now won four of their five five-setters in the VNL, with a defeat against Iran on 15 June 2019 being their only five-sets defeat.
Poland scored 112 points in the 3-2 win against Serbia, two fewer than versus Argentina on Friday. It was the fifth time Poland scored 100+ points in the VNL.
- Karol Klos scored five of Poland's 15 stuff blocks against Serbia, more than twice as many as he had registered in all previous 2019 VNL matches (4 blocks).
- Bartosz Kwolek tallied 24 points versus Serbia to make him the team's top scorer in the 2019 VNL on 96 points. Last year, only Artur Szalpuk (108) scored more than 100 points for Poland in the preliminary round.