Iran celebrate winning a point on their way to a best-ever World Championship finish
Head-to-Head• This will be the first ever World Championship meeting between Iran and Russia.
• These teams recently met in the final round of the 2014 World League, when Russia beat Iran 3-2.
Iran• Iran are set to better their best ever World Championship result by at least 13 places. They finished in 19th place in 1998 and 2010 and are sure of at least a sixth place finish this year.
• It will also be the best result by an AVC team since Japan finished in fourth place at the 1982 World Championship.
• Iran will end their 2014 World Championship campaign with at least seven wins. That is already more than the five wins they claimed in all of their four previous participations combined.
Russia• Russia will finish without a medal for the third time in a row, after finishing fifth in 2010 and seventh in 2006.
• It is the first time in team history that Russia finished three consecutive World Championships empty handed (including their participations as Soviet Union). In 1994 and 1998 they finished seventh and fifth respectively, before taking the silver medal in 2002.
• They can equal a team record of four consecutive losses, set previously in 1970.