Head-to-head• China and Bulgaria have met six times at the World Championship, with Bulgaria winning five meetings.
• China's only victory over Bulgaria came in five sets at the 1962 edition.
• Four years ago, Bulgaria beat China in straight sets in the first round.
• Bulgaria was also victorious in their only meeting at the Olympic Games: 3-1 in Beijing 2008 in the group stage.
China
• China are on a two-match winning streak. They can win three in a row at the World Championship for the first time since 1978-1982 (5 matches).
• They are enjoying their best start to a World Championship campaign since 1998, when they also won their two opening matches. They went on to lose seven of their following eight matches that year.
• Zhi Yuan scored a total of 30 points in China's last match against Mexico, while already having scored 31 points in China's 2014 World Championship opener against Egypt. Fifty-three points came from spikes, eight from serves.
• This will be China's 100th match at the World Championship (45 wins, 54 defeats).
Bulgaria
• Bulgaria have won (3-0 vs Mexico) and lost (3-2 vs Canada) one match so far.
• At the World Championship, they have not been able to follow-up on a single loss with a win since 1998. Since then, they always lost at least one following match after an initial loss.
• Bulgaria's last match was the aforementioned 3-2 defeat against Canada. They have not played back-to-back five-setters at the World Championship since 2002-2006. (3-2 loss vs Japan, 3-2 win vs Italy).