Plock, Poland, November 23, 2018 - PGE Skra Belchatow open their FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship campaign in Pool A in Plock on Monday against 2017 runners-up Cucine Lube Civitanova from Italy.
Head-to-Head· PGE Skra Belchatow play Cucine Lube Civitanova for the second time at the Club World Championship.
· Lube defeated PGE Skra 3-0 in last year's semifinals. Lube eventually finished as runners-up to Zenit Kazan, while PGE Skra finished fourth.
· PGE Skra are winless in their Club World Championship meetings with Italian sides. Apart from their defeat to Lube, PGE Skra lost against Trentino Volley in the 2009 (3-0) and 2010 (3-1) final.
· Lube also won their only other match at the Club World Championship against a Polish team: 3-2 against ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle in the 2017 group stage.
· Lube have won five of their last six Champions League matches against PGE Skra, with a 3-2 defeat in the 2016/17 group stage as the only exception in this run.
PGE Skra Belchatow· PGE Skra Belchatow appear at the Club World Championship for the fifth time. They are the only team from Poland on multiple participations in the competition.
· PGE Skra finished as runners-up in 2009 and 2010 and claimed a third place in 2012. They finished in fourth place in last year's edition after losing the third-place decider to Sada Cruzeiro (3-0).
· Only Trentino Volley (6), Sada Cruzeiro (5) and Zenit Kazan (5) have claimed more world club championship podiums than PGE Skra (3). Those three teams have won the competition at least once.
· A Polish team has yet to win the competition. Jastrzebski Wegiel also recorded a second place, in 2011.
· PGE Skra have lost their last three Club World Championship matches without winning a single set. They had lost only three of their other 17 matches in the competition (one in straight sets).
· Last season, PGE Skra won the national title in Poland for the first time since 2013/14.
Cucine Lube Civitanova· Last year, Cucine Lube Civitanova finished runners-up to Zenit Kazan on their Club World Championship debut.
· Italian sides have won the Club World Championship a record eight times, all in the first eight editions.
· Only in 2014 and 2015 there was no Italian team on the podium of the Club World Championship.
· Lube won their first four matches in the competition before losing 3-0 to Zenit Kazan in the final.
· Lube finished in the top-three in the last three CEV Champions League campaigns: second in 2017/18 and third in both 2016/17 and 2015/16.
· Osmany Juantorena was awarded as most valuable player of the 2017 Club World Championship.