Czestochowa, Poland, November 11, 2018 - Italian club and last year's runners-up Cucine Lube Civitanova take on Asseco Resovia of Poland in the first semifinal of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship on Saturday.
Head-to-Head· These sides will meet for the first time at the Club World Championship.
· Cucine Lube Civitanova and Asseco Resovia have met five times in the Champions League this century. Lube won all five matches: in the 2012/13 Playoff 12 (3-0, 3-1), in the 2015/16 third place play-off (3-2) and in the 2016/17 league round (3-0, 3-0).
· Lube have won all of their previous three Club World Championship matches against Polish teams. They beat ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle (3-2, preliminary round) and PGE Skra Belchatów (3-0, semifinals) in 2017 and again PGE Skra in this year's preliminary round (3-1).
Cucine Lube Civitanova · Cucine Lube Civitanova qualified for the semifinals by winning each of their three matches in their pool.
· In 2017, during their only previous appearance at the CWC, Lube also won each of their three group phase matches and then beat Polish side PGE Skra Belchatów in the semifinals. In the final, Lube lost against Zenit-Kazan, their only defeat in the competition to date.
· In the 2017/18 Champions League, Lube also defeated a Polish side on their way to the final (ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle, 3-1). In the final they lost to Zenit-Kazan again. The Russian club has been eliminated from this year's CWC.
· Yoandy Leal Hidalgo is Lube's top scorer in the tournament on 42 points, followed by Tsvetan Sokolov on 41.
· Dragan Stankovi and Robertlandy Simón Aties have each recorded eight stuff blocks.
Asseco Resovia· Asseco Resovia have reached the semifinals of the Club World Championship on their debut in the competition. They won their first two matches before losing to Trentino Volley in their last group phase match.
· The last Polish team to reach the final of the Club World Championship was Jastrzebski Wegiel in 2011 (lost to Trentino Volley in the final). It was also Jastrzebski Wegiel's debut in the competition that season.
· No Polish team has ever won the Men's Club World Championship.
· Thibault Rossard (41) is the only player of Asseco Resovia to have scored more than 30 points at the 2018 CWC.
· In the 3-0 defeat against Trentino Volley, Jakub Jarosz was Resovia's top scorer, scoring 15 points. All of his points came from spikes.