|
Help | |
You are here: Rediff Home » India » Sports » Football »
Reuters >
Report |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Advertisement | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Argentina have returned to the top of FIFA's world rankings after winning their first two qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup.
The South Americans secured 2-0 victories away to Venezuela and at home to Chile earlier this month to climb above Brazil [Images] and Italy [Images] in the monthly standings.
Italy, who topped the rankings last month, fell to third despite two wins of their own.
The World Cup holders matched Argentina with two 2-0 wins in October, over South Africa and Georgia.
Italy gained less ranking points because of Georgia's own low ranking and the fact that the game against South Africa was a friendly.
The Italians also dropped points under the rolling system used by FIFA to evaluate national teams, with a more heavily-weighted win over Ukraine in October 2006 being devalued.
England [Images] have dropped out of the top 10, slipping to 11th following a 2-1 defeat away to Russia [Images] in their penultimate qualifying match for next year's European Championships.
Russia, who are now strongly placed to deny England a place at the Euro 2008 [Images] finals, have soared ten places to 16th thanks purely to their October 7 win in Moscow [Images].
Top 20 rankings (previous positions in brackets):
1. (2) Argentina
2. (3) Brazil
3. (1) Italy
4. (6) France [Images]
5. (4) Germany [Images]
6. (7) Spain
7. (5) Netherlands
8. (8) Portugal
9. (11) Czech Republic
10. (10) Croatia
11. (9) England
12. (12) Romania
13. (14) Scotland
14. (15) Greece
15. (13) Mexico
16. (26) Russia
17. (19) Uruguay
18. (18) U.S.
19. (23) Nigeria
20. (16) Poland
© Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. |
Email this Article Print this Article |
|
© 2007 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Feedback |