Sports Briefs
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SUPER Eagles of Nigeria has retained their 41st position in the latest FIFA Rankings. The rankings released by the world football body on Thursday, March 9, showed that the three-time African champions moved up nine places in the rankings from 50 in February and stayed there with the same number of points (685) in the March rankings.
The Super Eagles have now retained their stay in the top 10 teams in Africa for the fourth consecutive month as they remain seventh on the continent, despite their failure to play at the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The Eagles will hope to climb further up in the rankings after their March 23 and 27 friendly encounters against Senegal and Burkina Faso in London.
Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup qualifying opponents Algeria, who dropped 11 spots from their previous place in February, also retained their 50th position in the March rankings. Gabon 2017 champions Cameroon, who the Eagles will play in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in August and September, climbed one spot from their ranking in February. The Indomitable Lions are now 32nd in the world but remain third in Africa. The other team in Nigeria’s group, Zambia, climbed a spot from 91st to 90th in the rankings.
Gabon 2017 runners-up Egypt (20), who climbed three places from the February rankings, top the African rankings. West Africans Senegal (28) also climbed three places to rank second while champions Cameroon are third.
Burkina Faso (36), climbed up two places to be Africa’s fourth ranked team while Tunisia (37), who dropped a spot from January, are Africa’s fifth ranked team. Congo DR (38) are the sixth ranked team while Ghana (43), Ivory Coast (47) and Morocco (49) complete the top 10 teams in Africa. Algeria are ranked 11th on the continent.
On the global scene, Argentina, Brazil and Germany still hold the first, second and third places while Chile, Belgium, France, Colombia, Portugal, Uruguay and Spain complete the top 10 in the world.
— Mar 20, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT
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