Pool A: Italy – GermanyHead-to-head- Italy and Germany will meet for the fifth time at the World Championship. Germany won their first two meetings: 3-1 in 1978 as West Germany and 3-0 in 1986 as East Germany.
- The last two meetings were won by Italy: 3-0 in 2002 and 3-1 in 2010.
- Both teams met recently at the World Grand Prix with Italy beating Germany in five sets after trailing 2-0.
Italy- Italy is one of the four teams (Brazil, China and Russia) that have yet to lose a set at the 2014 World Championship.
- Italy have won their last five world championship matches in straight sets. They can win six in a row for the first time since 1998-2002: eight consecutive victories in straight sets.
- They can win their first four matches of the competition for the second time after winning their first five in 2002.
- Italy currently have the best spiker in the competition with Nadia Centoni who has a success rate of 50.98%. They also have the best blocker so far with Cristina Chirichella (average of 1.33 per set).
Germany- After losing their 2014 opener against Dominican Republic in five sets, Germany have bounced back by beating Argentina and Tunisia in straight sets.
- This is the fourth consecutive World Championship in which Germany have started their campaign with two victories and one defeat.
- Germany have only failed to win a single set in three of their last 25 world championship matches.