After 36 years, Argentina won the FIFA World Cup as winners, but Brazil will remain at the top of the FIFA rankings. Argentina won the World Cup for the first time since 1986 after defeating France in the Qatar World Cup, but Argentina did not reach the top spot in FIFA’s world rankings. In February 2022, Brazil overtook Belgium to the first place in the FIFA ranking. Argentina’s World Cup victory was not enough to overtake Brazil in the FIFA rankings, who were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup. Brazil won three matches in the World Cup. Although they lost to Cameroon in the group stage, they entered the quarter-finals. However, in the quarter-finals, they lost to Croatia in the penalty shootout and were eliminated from the World Cup. Argentina went on to win four matches after losing their first match to Saudi Arabia. Argentina won the World Cup by defeating France 4-2 in the penalty shootout in the final match.
Argentina won the Copa America title in 2021. They are currently the world champions. Despite winning the World Cup, Argentina suffered a setback in the ranking because of the relatively low ranking points for the victories in the penalty shootout. Had Argentina beaten France in regulation time or extra time in the World Cup final, Argentina would have won first place.
In the FIFA ranking, Argentina and France have improved by one position and reached the second and third positions respectively. Meanwhile, Belgium fell two places to fourth after failing to progress beyond the group stage. England remain in fifth place. The Netherlands rose two places to sixth place. Croatia, who finished third in the World Cup, moved up five places from 12th in the FIFA rankings to seventh and entered the top ten. Italy, which failed to qualify for the World Cup, fell two places to eighth place. Portugal remains in ninth place. Spain dropped three places to 10th.
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Morocco and Australia have improved the ranking significantly. Both rose 11 places. After finishing fourth in the World Cup, Morocco became the first African country to rank 11th in the FIFA rankings. Australia finished 16th in the World Cup and moved to 27th in the FIFA rankings. This is not Morocco’s highest ranking ever. In 1998, they were ranked 10th. But in 2015, it slipped to 92nd position. Cameroon also moved up 10 places to 33rd with the win over Brazil. Cameroon also became the first African country to win against Brazil.
The US, which topped the CONCACAF rankings, rose three places to 13th in the FIFA rankings. Mexico dropped two places to fifteenth place. Canada and Qatar dropped 12 places to 53rd and 62nd respectively. Wales fell nine places to 28th. Denmark dropped eight places to 18th and Serbia dropped eight places to 29th. The new FIFA world rankings will be officially published on Thursday.
New FIFA Ranking Top 20:
1. Brazil
2. Argentina
3. France
4. Belgium
5. England
6. The Netherlands
7. Croatia
8. Italy
9. Portugal
10. Spain
11. Morocco
12. Switzerland
13. USA
14. Germany
15. Mexico
16. Uruguay
17. Colombia
18. Denmark
19. Senegal
20. Japan
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