The fifth eighthfinal in the Thai capital will offer a clash between China and France, serving off at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC).
The two teams met twice in recent history – once at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris and once in this year’s Volleyball Nations League in Beijing. China took both games in straight sets.
China triumphed as world champions twice, in 1982 and in 1986. After that, they made it to the World Championship podium another four times, with three silvers and, most recently, the 2018 bronze. Now they are the number five team in the FIVB World Ranking. The Asian powerhouse arrived at the current eighthfinals as the undefeated Pool F winners. They beat Mexico and Colombia in four sets each, before shutting out Dominican Republic in a direct duel for the first place in the pool. 22-year-old outside hitter Zhuang Yushan was China’s best scorer in the pool phase of the World Championship with a total of 55 points to her name.
Meanwhile, France are enjoying their fourth appearance at the World Championships and the first in over half a century. They played at the inaugural edition back in 1952 and finished seventh, their best result in history to date. Currently, they are the world’s number 14 ranked team. In Pool C of the ongoing tournament in Thailand, France started off with a four-set win over Puerto Rico. Then, they took a two-set lead against mighty Brazil before conceding defeat in the tie-breaker. In their last pool game, France beat Greece in four sets to finish second and advance. Their outside hitter and captain Helena Cazaute was the best receiver of the entire pool stage of the World Championship, She was also France’s leading scorer with a total of 66 points. Meanwhile, opposite Iman Ndiaye is running second in the competition’s best servers statistical ranking with nine aces in the three matches played.
