Spain stretch lead at top of world rankings
Reuters - Wednesday 08 October 2008, 08:37
ZURICH - European champions Spain remained
top of the world football rankings for a fourth straight month on
Wednesday after extending their lead over world champions
Italy.
World Cup qualifying wins over Armenia and Bosnia were
enough to keep Vicente Del Bosque's side comfortably clear of
the Italians, who also enjoyed qualifying victories over
Georgia and Cyprus in the past month.
Brazil climbed above the Netherlands and Croatia into
fourth place off the back of their World Cup qualifying draw
with Bolivia and away win over Chile.
Scotland's hopes of leapfrogging traditional rivals
England, however, evaporated following a shock 1-0 defeat in
Macedonia.
After suffering the largest drop of points in this month's
rankings, Scotland fell 10 places, to 26th while England's win
over Croatia helped Fabio Capello's team climb one spot to
14th.
FIFA WORLD RANKINGS (previous position in brackets):
1. (1) Spain
2. (2) Italy
3. (3) Germany
4. (6) Brazil
5. (4) Netherlands
6. (5) Croatia
7. (7) Argentina
8. (8) Czech Republic
9. (12) Russia
10. (9) Portugal
11. (11) France
12. (14) Cameroon
13. (10) Turkey
14. (15) England
15. (16) Bulgaria
16. (19) Israel
17. (18) Greece
18. (13) Romania
19. (26) Ukraine
20. (22) Uruguay
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