Head-to-Head• Cuba and Russia have met each other six times at the World Championships, but all meetings were with the former Soviet Union.
• Cuba only won the last meeting, in the 1990 semifinal, but lost the final against Italy.
• Russia/Soviet Union have won all four meetings at the Olympic Games (1976, 1980, 1996, 2000).
Cuba• Cuba lost 3-2 against Canada on Wednesday. They have now lost two their last 20 matches that went into a fifth set at the World Championship.
• Cuba have won 248 sets at the World Championships and can become the eighth nation to win 250 sets.
• They won and lost one match on 11 September. In 1956, they lost 3-0 against Israel and in 1966 they defeated West Germany 3-0.
Russia• Russia have won all six matches at the 2014 World Championship and are on a nine-match winning streak in the competition. This is their best run since Soviet Union won 29 matches in a row between 1979 and 1986.
• Russia need one more win to equal their winning total of four year ago (7).
• Russia have won at least one set in 24 of their last 25 World Championship matches, only losing 3-0 against Italy in 2006 in this span.