Spain's men remain on top of FIFA global rankings for April 2014

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Saturday, April 12, 2014

File photo of Spanish international Diego Costa playing for Atletico Madrid
Image: Carlos Delgado.

The latest FIFA global rankings were published on Thursday. While there were changes for eight of the top ten ranked teams, the Spanish team's top ranking remained unchanged. Germany's rank of number two also remained unchanged. All the teams are all-male, with women ranked separately.

Portugal, Colombia and Uruguay each moved up one to be ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively. Argentina dropped three places to be ranked sixth, tied in the rank with Brazil who moved up three. Switzerland and Italy each moved down one, ranked eighth and ninth respectively. Greece moved up three to be ranked tenth.

Azerbaijan is ranked the highest in the team's history at 85th, up six from the previous rankings published in March. Afghanistan is the second team in this ranking to have a team best ranking with a 122nd ranking, up 5 from the previous ranking period. Scotland was the biggest mover in this ranking period, climbing 15 spots for a ranking of 22. Liberia had the biggest drop, moving down 22 spots to 119. This was down only one more team than New Zealand who dropped 21 spots to be ranked 111.

Later this year, Spain is scheduled to play the Netherlands, Chile and Australia at the 2014 FIFA World Cup during pool play. The Netherlands dropped four places to be ranked fifteenth. Australia rose four places to be ranked 59th. Chile rose one place to be ranked fourteenth.

Several members of the Spanish national team are currently scheduled to play in the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, including Diego Costa, Koke and David Villa who play for Atletico Madrid and Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, Álvaro Arbeloa, Nacho, Xabi Alonso, Isco.


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