Lausanne, Switzerland, June 18, 2017 - Belgium host France Sunday in Antwerp in what is their fourth meeting in the history of the FIVB World League, with France leading the series 2-1. France, on a 7-1 record have already punched their ticket for the Final Six in Curitiba, but Belgium still need a win to secure their own.
Head-to-Head• Belgium and France have met three times in the World League. France have a slight advantage over their neighbours, winning two of the three matches.
• The first encounter between these teams in the World League came in the 2014 semifinals when France proved too strong in straight sets.
• In 2016, the teams met twice with Belgium winning the first match in five sets before suffering another straight sets defeat.
Belgium• Belgium beat Italy by a 3-1 scoreline on Saturday. This brought their World League record for this season to four wins and four defeats.
• With that win, Belgium surpassed their win total of last season, when they were victorious in three matches and suffered six defeats.
• This was Belgium’s 25th win in the World League. They have 20 defeats.
• Bram Van Den Dries scored 20 points against Italy: 16 spikes, 2 kill blocks and 2 aces.
France• France beat Canada 3-0 on Saturday, conceding only 52 points. France was the first team in 34 matches to keep Canada from claiming at least one set.
• This was a nice rebound for France after their only defeat in the competition this season, 3-2 against Italy on Friday.
• France now have seven wins and one defeat in the 2017 World League.
• Stephen Boyer (25 points) scored one-third of all French points (75) against Canada.