You are here: HomeSports2021 04 08Article 429520

Sports News of Thursday, 8 April 2021

Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

Super Eagles soar on FIFA ranking

Super Eagles Super Eagles

Former African champions, the Super Eagles have moved four places in the latest World football governing body monthly ranking for April.

With 1487.16 points, the Nigerian side is ranked 32nd in the world and the third-best team in Africa behind Senegal and Tunisia who are placed first and second on the continent.

Nigeria’s rise on the ranking log can be associated with their impressive run during the AFCON 2021 qualifiers where they finished tops in Group L.

Consequently, Gernot Rohr’s team current ranking would also be crucial to their likely opponents in the final qualifying round for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Nigeria will resume their World Cup qualification campaign when they host the Lone Star of Liberia next month.

Meanwhile, April’s FIFA World Ranking rings the changes for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the points total for each team is now calculated to two decimal places to enhance precision. Consequently, in this latest edition, only two pairs of teams are tied: Cameroon and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 55th place on 1404.87 points; and Cabo Verde and the United Arab Emirates in joint 73rd on 1330.16 points.

Secondly, with no fewer than 185 games – predominantly qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2021 – played since the last edition in February, there has naturally been quite a lot of movement in April’s global standings.

While the order of the top six has not changed, with Belgium still dominating ahead of France and Brazil, seventh place is now filled by Italy (7, +3). Like Gli Azzurri, Denmark (10, +2) won their opening three qualifying games for Qatar 2022 and make a return to the top 10.