Nigeria Super Eagles climbed up to third place as Africa best team in April’s FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings released on Wednesday.
The Super Eagles also moved up also from their 36th place in the last ranking released in February to 32 in the world.
Nigeria won their last two Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) qualifier in March defeating Benin 1-0 in Porto Novo before trouncing Lesotho 3-0 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium to qualify as unbeaten in Group L.
According to FIFA, there were changes for a couple of reasons.
“First and foremost, the points total for each team is now calculated to two decimal places to enhance precision.
“Consequently, in this latest edition, only two pairs of teams are tied: Cameroon and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 55th place on 1404.87 points; and Cabo Verde and the United Arab Emirates in joint 73rd on 1330.16 points.
“Secondly, with no fewer than 185 games – predominantly qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2021 – played since the last edition in February, there has naturally been quite a lot of movement in April’s global standings.
“While the order of the top six has not changed, with Belgium still dominating ahead of France and Brazil, seventh place is now filled by Italy (7, +3).
“Like Gli Azzurri, Denmark (10, +2) won their opening three qualifying games for Qatar 2022 and make a return to the top 10.
“A little further down, Serbia (25, +5), Nigeria (32, +4), Scotland (44, +4) and Ghana (49, +3) all gained ground in the top 50, which Iceland slipped out of (52, -6).
“However, to find the biggest mover this month, we need to look outside the top 100. That distinction goes to Guinea-Bissau (108, +11), with Namibia (111, +10) almost matching them with a jump of ten places.
“Finally, this edition’s most improved side in terms of points, Armenia (90, +9), gained valuable ground thanks to a gain of 40.28 points, while Malawi (115, +8), Cabo Verde (73, +7), Ethiopia (140, +6), and Korea DPR (109, +6) also made considerable progress.”
-africatopsports
