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KATHMANDU, APR 14 -
The FIFA world rankings on Wednesday showed Nepal’s good performance this month.
Nepal jumped 22 places up; a giant leap from 172 to the 150 spot, just four places behind neighbouring India.
Nepal played five international matches, of which, they won three. Nepal downed Bhutan 1-0 and 2-1 in a friendly match series consisting of two matches.
In the AFC Challenge Cup Ground ‘D’ qualifiers at the Dashrath Stadium through April 7-11, they played three matches, where the outcome was a win, a draw and a loss. They kicked off the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Afghanistan, while they bowed down 0-1 to North Korea and were restricted to a goalless draw in the match against Sri Lanka.
Afghanistan, too, went up 21 places and are currently 174th in the world ranking.
World Cup winner Spain stayed at the top of the FIFA rankings and the previous two champions, Brazil and Italy, rose in the top 10.
World Cup finalist, the Netherlands, remained No 2, and Brazil climbed two places to No 3.
Brazil overtook archrival Argentina after beating Scotland 2-0 in a friendly.
Germany, which lost a home friendly against Australia, fell one spot to No 4. Argentina dropped to the fifth after drawing friendlies against the United States and Costa Rica.
Italy ended a seven-month exile from the top 10. The 2006 World Cup winner rose two places to No 9 following wins last month against Slovenia in a European Championships qualifier and a friendly in Ukraine.
Asian champion Japan rose to No 13, continuing a surge since the World Cup last June when it was placed 45th.
Bosnia-Herzegovina rose 12 to No 44 after beating Romania, but has since been suspended by FIFA. The federation must rewrite its statutes before being allowed to travel to Romania for the return match in June.
Albania placed a best-ever No 50 after a Euro 2012 win against Belarus.
Libya jumped 13 to its best of No 58 after beating Comoros in an African Cup qualifier. The match was played in neutral Mali because Tripoli was too dangerous to host football.
New Zealand led Oceania teams at No 60, down four places.
Future World Cup hosts Russia and Qatar dropped in status after drawing a friendly in Doha staged to celebrate their success.
Russia, which also drew a Euro 2012 qualifier in Armenia, fell five to No. 13, and No. 91 Qatar fell one place.
The rankings graded international teams over a four-year cycle of results, and took account of 124 matches played in the last five weeks.
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