Nigeria slide in FIFA ranking

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Daniel Amokachi
Daniel Amokachi
Daniel Amokachi

The Super Eagles are currently the 45th ranked team in the world as revealed in the April FIFA ranking released on Thursday.

The team slid four places from being 41st to 45th following their lacklustre performance in the period in review.

Nigeria lost 1-0 at home to Uganda and drew 1-1 with South Africa in Nelspruit, confirming their declining prowess in the continent.

Nigeria were not the only team to suffer the slide as Africa’s top four teams – Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Tunisia – also dropped from their former positions.

Algeria dropped down from 18th to 21st, Ivory Coast also dropped down three places from 20the to 23rd, Ghana lost two places to 26th and Tunisia went down five places to 30th.

Belgium moved up one place to third, achieving their highest-ever position following two wins in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying, and now trail only Germany and Argentina.

Brazil (5th, up 1) and the Netherlands (6th, down 1) have traded places. The Brazilians defeated France (11th, down 3) 3-1, while the Netherlands had to settle for a draw against Turkey (52nd, up 4) in their EURO qualifier.

Switzerland (9th, up 3) and Spain (10th, up 1) have re-entered the top ten at the expense of France and Italy (13th, down 3) respectively.

According to FIFA, a total of 135 Grade A international games were taken into account for the latest edition of the global ladder, taking the total number of games evaluated so far this year to 217.

Of the new matches, 25 were qualifiers for EURO 2016, 26 were 2018 World Cup qualifiers (CONCACAF, AFC) and 84 were friendlies.

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