In spite of the two draws secured by the Super Eagles during the recent FIFA windows following 1-1 scoreline with Ukraine and the high profile friendly match against Brazil over two weeks ago, Nigeria still dropped by one spot in the latest ranking released by the World Soccer ruling body Thursday.
According to the FIFA report, Nigeria is now in 35th position as against 34th it placed in last month’s ranking and the nation garnered 1,481 points as against 1482 recorded in September.
However, in spite of the drop, Nigeria still occupy the third spot in Africa behind Senegal and Tunisia who are placed 20th and 29th with 1,546 and 1,495 points, respectively.
On the global scene, although, 184 recent international matches have left their mark on the latest ranking with those at the very top remain unaffected by the movement around them.
In the current rating, Algeria, Morocco, Guinea, Libya, and Bangladesh played the most matches of four each but it was South Sudan and Nicaragua that are the biggest movers by points.
Both nations moved 11 places in the new ranking which took them to the 162nd position. The new height was achieved when South Sudan secured 1-0 and 2-1 wins over Seychelles in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.
Sao Tome and Principe’s two wins over Mauritius in Nations Cup qualifying saw them leap 10 places up to 180th.
The losses for Mauritius mean they fell 12 spots to 173 in the world, the biggest overall drop on the October rankings.
The big moves came lower down the list as those nations played in the competitive qualifiers while other were involved in friendlies, which carry less weight in the ranking calculations.
Meanwhile, it retained its top position and followed by the world champion, France and Brazil followed in the third position.
But the most significant rises are to be found further down the ranking, where the in-form quartet of Ukraine (22nd, up 3), Japan (28th, up 3), Turkey (32nd, up 4) and Russia (37th, up 5) are among the more notable climbers.
The next FIFA ranking would be released on the 21st of November and with Super Eagles involved in a competitive AFCON 2021 qualifying matches against the Republic of Benin and Lesotho but they win both matches, it may push the nation higher depending on the result of matches of other teams ahead in the placement.
Source: THISDAY
