IRELAND HAVE MOVED up three places in the latest FIFA rankings despite their loss to Serbia last month.
However, Martin O’Neill’s side are still below teams such as Burkina Faso, Jordan and Uzbekistan as they sit in 65th position.
Meanwhile, England are up one place to 11th, Ireland’s future European Championship qualifying opponents Scotland have jumped 15 places to 22nd, Wales are also up two places to 47th and Northern Ireland have gone from 86th to 84th.
Elsewhere, Portugal, without even playing, moved into third spot, as Argentina slipped to sixth.
It means Europe now occupies the top three places in the rankings, with Portugal sitting behind leaders Spain and Germany.
They are followed by four South American sides in Colombia (4th, up 1), Uruguay (5th, up 1), and arch-rivals Argentina (down 3) and Brazil (up 3), who share sixth position.
Only six matches were played over the past month, and FIFA said the majority of changes “can be attributed to the devaluation of matches from previous years, most of which were FIFA World Cup qualifiers and now have a greatly reduced weighting”.
FIFA country rankings, as of April 10
1. Spain
2. Germany
3. Portugal (+1 place)
4. Colombia (+1)
5. Uruguay (+1)
6. Argentina (-3)
6. Brazil (+3)
8. Switzerland (-1)
9. Italy (-1)
10. Greece (+3)
11. England (+1)
12. Belgium (-2)
13. United States (+1)
14. Chile (+1)
15. Netherlands (-4)
16. France (+1)
17. Ukraine (+1)
18. Russia (+1)
19. Mexico (+1)
20. Croatia (-4)
22. Scotland (+15)
47. Wales (+2)
65. Republic of Ireland (+3)
84. Northern Ireland (+2)
Additional reporting by AFP
