Super Eagles

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Nigeria’s Super Eagles have dropped to 35 in the world in the latest ranking released by the Federation of International Football, FIFA.

The Eagles which ranked 32 in October moved to 35 in November following two poor showing against Sierra Leone in AFCON qualifier, drawing the two games.

The Eagles also lost 1-0 to Algeria and played 1-1 with Tunisia in international friendly matches in October. These affected the ranking.

The Nigerian team are now fourth in Africa, trailing Senegal, Tunisia and Algeria. Senegal, which ranked 20 in the world is the best placed team in Africa, followed by Tunisia which ranked 26 in the world and Algeria, 31st in the world.

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While the podium remains unchanged, Belgium have widened the gap on their immediate pursuers France. Third-placed Brazil are closing in on Les Bleus after extending their perfect start in South American qualifying for Qatar 2022.

Despite the lack of movement at the summit, there are some familiar faces back in the top ten, with Mexico (9th, +2) and Italy (10th, +2) making their return after nine and four years respectively. Croatia (11th, -2) and Colombia (15th, -5) are the two teams dropping out.

A little further down, Romania (37th, +7) and Hungary (40th, +7) have also made impressive gains, while Egypt (49th, +3) and Cameroon (50th, +3) move into the Top 50 at the expense of Costa Rica (51st, -1) and Ghana (52nd, -4).

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However, the biggest climbers this month are two other African sides: Equatorial Guinea (134th, +10) and Burundi (138th, +10). The former shone in back-to-back victories over Libya (111th, -9) in AFCON qualifying, while the latter first drew and then beat Mauritania (101st, -3) in the same competition.

Four other national teams have moved up five or more places in this month’s classification, namely: Latvia (136th, +6), Curacao (76th, +5), Azerbaijan (109th, +5) and South Sudan (163rd, +5).