Yokohama, Japan, October 19, 2018 - Two European sides, Serbia and Italy, meet in Sunday's final in Yokohama Arena to determine the team takes the top of the podium at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship.
2018 FIVB Women's World Championship Finals:•
Netherlands v China•
Serbia v Italy
Head-to-Head
• This will be the first World Championship final between two teams from Europe (excluding round-robin tournaments from 1952-1974).
• Serbia (including as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro) and Italy meet for the sixth time at the World Championship. Italy have won only one of the previous five encounters, Serbia four.
• Italy's sole win over Serbia at the World Championship was their 3-0 win in the classification round 5-8 in 2010.
• Serbia beat Italy 3-1 in the third round of this World Championship on 16 October. Tijana Boškovic scored a match-high 29 points in that fixture, one more than Paola Ogechi Egonu (28).
• Last June, Italy beat Serbia in five sets in the Volleyball Nations League.
• In 2007, Italy won their first European Championships title after beating Serbia in straight sets in the final. They won their second and most recent European title in 2009.
Serbia• Serbia (including Yugoslavia & Serbia and Montenegro) are sure of their best result at the World Championship. Their previous best finish was a third place in 2006, also in Japan.
• In that bronze medal match in 2006 they beat Italy in straight sets.
• Serbia can become the seventh team to win the world title, after Russia (7 titles, including Soviet Union), Cuba (3), Japan (3), China (2), Italy (1) and United States (1).
• Serbia have won 10 of their 12 matches at this World Championship, only suffering defeats against Japan (3-1) and Netherlands (3-0) in the second round.
• Serbia have lost only eight sets in their 12 matches.
• Tijana Boškovic is Serbia's top scorer this tournament on 167 points. Brankica Mihajlovic follows on 151 points.
• Boškovic is the best spiker at the 2018 World Championship with a success rate of 54%. Note: this excludes the final 3-4 on Sunday.
• With Silvija Popovic, Serbia also have the tournament's best digger in their squad. Popovic averages 3.23 digs per set. Note: this excludes the final 3-4 on Sunday.
Italy• Italy are in search of their second world title. In 2002, they beat United States 3-2 in the final in Berlin, Germany.
• Italy could join Russia (7 titles, including Soviet Union), Cuba (3), Japan (3) and China (2) as the teams to have won the world title on multiple occasions.
• Their victory in 2002 is Italy's only World Championship podium finish to date. They lost the bronze medal match versus Brazil (3-2) at the World Championship in 2014 and versus Serbia and Montenegro (3-0) in 2006.
• Italy have lost only one of their 12 World Championship matches this campaign, their 3-1 third round defeat against forthcoming opponents Serbia.
• Paola Ogechi Egonu is the tournament's top scorer on 291 points, at least thirty more than any other player (Holland's Lonneke Slöetjes next, 261 points). Note: this excludes the final 3-4 on Sunday.
• Egonu scored a match-high 45 points in Italy's 3-2 semifinal win over China on Friday.
• Italy also have the tournaments best blocker (Anna Danesi, 0.89 per set) and best setter (Ofelia Malinov, 4.25 per set) in their midst. Note: this excludes the final 3-4 on Sunday.
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