Scotland reach rankings high
Scotland's players celebrated a famous win in Paris last week
Wednesday, 19, Sep 2007 12:27
Scotland have climbed to 14th in the world in the latest Fifa rankings following back-to-back Euro 2008 qualifying victories over Lithuania and France.
The nine-place rise from 23rd means the Scots equal their best-ever ranking position, which was first achieved three months ago in May 2007.
Alex McLeish's side are currently top of their qualifying group, despite being drawn in the toughest section alongside the world's number one side and World Cup winners Italy, World Cup finalists France and 17th-ranked team Ukraine.
Scotland's dramatic 1-0 win in Paris last week was considered one of the greatest international shocks in recent times and the defeat for the French means they drop two places from fourth to sixth.
Meanwhile England have rejoined the world's top ten sides, after back-to-back victories of their own over Israel and Russia propelled them into ninth, up from 12th.
They leapfrog group E leaders Croatia, who beat England 2-0 in Zagreb last year. Despite winning all three of their matches since the last rankings were released in August, Croatia have dropped four places to tenth overall.
There were mixed fortunes for the rest of the British Isles, however.
The Republic of Ireland are up five places to 32nd in the world, despite suffering a potentially fatal defeat in their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign to the Czech Republic last week.
Their near neighbours Northern Ireland fell nine places to 36th after back-to-back defeats to Iceland and Latvia while Wales were the biggest movers – up 21 places to 53rd following victories in Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Full Fifa top 20:
1- Italy
2- Argentina
3- Brazil
4- Germany
5- Netherlands
6- France
7- Spain
8- Portugal
9- England
10- Croatia
11- Czech Republic
12- Romania
13- Mexico
14- Scotland
15- Greece
16- Poland
17- Ukraine
18- USA
19- Uruguay
20- Sweden