FIFA Headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. (source: AP/TASR)
The November issue of the FIFA international football federation ranking placed the Slovak football squad with 837 points in 25th position. Though the players of coach Ján Kozák lost three points in comparison with the October ranking, they jumped by one position from 26th place, the SITA newswire reported.
In the monitored period, the Slovak first team beat Lithuania in Trnava on November 11 in the European qualification match for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and also scored a nil-nil draw in their friendly match in Austria on November 15. The team reached 14th place, their highest position in the ranking in August 2015.
While the November ranking showed shifts, Argentina with 1634 points remains at the top. Another South American giant, Brasil, with 1544 points replaced reigning world champion Germany (1433 points) in second position, Chile (1404 points) jumped from sixth to fourth position, fifth place goes to Belgium (1368 points) and the best six teams are underlined by Colombia (1345 points), SITA wrote.
The top 10 also include France, current European champion Portugal, Uruguay and Spain. Only one team in the European F-group of the 2018 World Cup qualification, England, outranked Slovakia when it achieved 13th position (1114 points). The group also includes Slovenia (50th position, 616 points), Scotland (67th, 524 points), Lithuania (106th, 324 points) and Malta (182th, 85 points).
FIFA registers 211 countries for ranking and plans another update on December 22, 2016, SITA reported.
