BEVERLY HILLS, April 07, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s Super Eagles climbed four places in the latest rankings of national teams published by world football governing body, FIFA, on Wednesday, April 7.
The improvement cannot be removed from the performance of the Super Eagles, who were involved in two international matches during the period under review, against the Squirrels of the Republic of Benin and the Crocodiles of Lesotho, for the final lap of the 2022 TOTAL African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers, both of which they won.
On the back of those victories, Nigeria surely moved up from 36th to 32nd in the world rankings and, by extension, climbed to third in the African bracket.
The latest continental hierarchy now has Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco as the top five teams respectively.
Of interest to Nigeria in the latest figures are the standings of opponents of the Super Eagles in the next set of international engagements, which are the World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria will contend against Cape Verde, ranked 73rd, Central African Republic, 118th, and Liberia 151st to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
The difference in quality should make it an easy group to qualify out of but the reality is often a lot more complex than what the rankings of each national team signifies.
There was no movement in the top six places as Belgium retained their lead at the summit while France, Brazil, England, Portugal and Spain followed respectively.
The most improved team overall was Armenia, who gained 40.28 points to move up nine places to 90th. Malawi followed with an eight-place climb to 115th followed by Cape Verde moving seven places higher to 73rd and Ethiopia taking a six-place hike to reach 140th.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on May 27, 2021.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
