Pool F: Bulgaria – Netherlands
Head-to-head
• Bulgaria have won all three previous world championship meetings with Netherlands by 3-0.
• Only against Cuba (5), Brazil (4) and Russia (4) have Netherlands lost more world championship matches in straight sets.
• For Bulgaria, three 3-0 wins against specific opponents is already a team record.
• This will be their first world championship run-in in nearly 40 years. They last met on 22 October 1974 in Monterrey, Mexico.
Bulgaria
• Bulgaria beat Kazakhstan 3-0 on Saturday to claim their third straight sets victory in five matches.
• Bulgaria can claim their fifth win at the 2014 world championships, equalling their third-highest number of wins (also in 1970, 1982 and 2002). Only in 1974 (8) and 1956 (6) they had more wins.
• Bulgaria have lost four of their last five and eight of their last 11 matches against fellow CEV nations. In this world championship, they beat Turkey and lost to Russia and Serbia.
Netherlands
• On Saturday, Netherlands lost 3-1 to Turkey. The Dutch have lost all of their three second round matches in 2014.
• In four of their last five matches in this tournament, Netherlands won the first set. In the end they won only one of these five.
• In all world championships since 1998, Netherlands managed to win at least one match in the second round/second group stage.