Katowice, Poland, September 16, 2014 - Coach Laurent Tillie's France team take on Germany at the Spodek Arena in Katowice as Round 3 of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship gets underway. The match begins at 20:25 local time and our
Match Centre has all the events as they happen.
Head-to-Head· France and Germany will meet for the fourth time at the World Championship, with the Germans winning two of their previous three meetings.
· At the 1966 World Championship, France clashed with both East and West Germany. East Germany beat France in straight sets while France defeated West Germany in straight sets.
· Their most recent meeting came in 2006 when (unified) Germany defeated France 3-1.
· The teams met at the 2014 World League with France winning three of the four meetings.
France· France claimed first place in Pool E (2nd round) with five wins from seven matches and will finish in the top 6 for the sixth time at the World Championship.
· Both defeats at the 2014 World Championship came in five sets (vs Italy and Poland).
· They have now conceded at least one set in their last eight world championship matches, after winning their opener against Puerto Rico in straight sets.
· France have the best scorer in the competition with Antonin Rouzier who has scored a total of 166 points.
· Yoann Jaumel will celebrate his 27th birthday on the day of the match.
Germany· Germany finished third in Pool F (2nd round) behind Brazil and Russia, claiming five wins in total. They will finish in the top 6 of a world championship for the first time in 40 years (4th in 1974 as East Germany).
· Both of their defeats in this year's competition came in straight sets.
· Germany can play their first five-setter in 17 world championship matches. They are the only team still in the competition to have not played a five-setter at the 2014 World Championship.
· The Germans have the second best spiker, Denys Kaliberda (55.63% success rate), and the second best server, György Grozer (0.67 average per set), in the competition.