Poland defeated Russia 3-0 in the first encounter and they hope to clinch a second win on Friday.
Head-to-Head• Poland have won only four of their 17 World League meetings with Russia.
• Their last meeting came in the 2011 semifinal with Russia beating Poland 3-1. Russia went on to win the tournament that year.
• Poland beat Russia in their most recent meeting in a competitive setting: a 3-2 win at the 2014 World Championships third round.
Poland
• Poland have been ever present in the World League since their first participation in 1998. They will make their 18th World League appearance.
• Poland have won two medals in the competition: bronze in 2011 and gold in 2012. Last year they finished in eighth place.
• Poland are two defeats shy from suffering their 100th in the competition.
• Poland have won their last five World League matches played in Gdansk.
Russia
• Russia (incl. CIS and URS) will make their 24th appearance in the World League.
• Russia have finished on the podium 15 times of their 23 previous participations (G3-S5-B7). Only Brazil have more silverware (18, G9-S5-B4).
• Russia have grabbed silverware in seven of their last nine participations in the World League. Only in 2012 (8th) and 2014 (5th) they failed to reach the podium.
• Sergey Tetyukhin is one of four players competing in the 2015 World League having reached the age of 39 years.
• Russia have the longest player of the World League in their squad with Dmitriy Muserskiy: 218 centimetres.