Lausanne, Switzerland, June 8, 2017 - Defending champions Serbia take on Argentina for the 19th time in World League history Friday in Tehran and the European side are looking at extending their head-to-head record over the South Americans.
Head-to-Head• Serbia (including incl. Serbia and Montenegro) and Argentina have met each other 18 times in the World League. Serbia won 11 times, Argentina seven times.
• Argentina have won their last two World League meetings with Serbia: 3-0 in 2011 and in 2016. They can now beat Serbia three times in a row for the first time in the competition.
• Five of the last six World League meetings between these nations ended in straight sets, with Serbia claiming two and Argentina three of these five 3-0 results.
Serbia• Reigning champions Serbia started their 2017 World League campaign with 3-1 wins over both United States (2 June) and Canada (4 June) and a 3-0 loss to Belgium (3 June).
• Last season, Serbia won their opening six matches in the World League.
• After the first weekend, Marko Ivovic (0.55 average by set) was the third-best server in Group 1. Only Russia's Maxim Zhigalov (0.67) and France's Julien Lyneel (0.70) had a better average.
Argentina• Argentina have lost three of their last four World League matches. The exception in that run is their 3-2 win over Bulgaria last Saturday.
• Argentina's two losses last weekend came by a 3-0 score line. In 2016, only one of their losses came in straight sets.
• Argentina (147) could lose their 150th World League match this weekend. Coming into the weekend, only Japan (221), Korea (175) and Cuba (150) have lost 150 or more World league matches.