Football: World Cup winners Argentina move up to second in Fifa rankings, Morocco jump to 11th

Paris – World Cup winners Argentina have risen to second in the Fifa rankings with quarter-finalists Brazil still top, football’s global governing body announced on Thursday.

Lionel Messi’s side,

who lifted the trophy in Qatar on Sunday

, move up one place, as do runners-up France, who are now third, with Belgium dropping to fourth.

Last weekend’s final was decided on penalties and if one side had won the match after 90 minutes then, according to Fifa regulations, they would have gone above Brazil.

Croatia moved from 12th to seventh after finishing third, with fourth-placed Morocco now 11th as the highest-positioned African nation.

England (fifth), Netherlands (sixth), Italy (eighth), Portugal (ninth) and Spain round off the top 10 sides.

Morocco climbed from 22nd to 11th after their heroics in Qatar.

The Atlas Lions were eliminated by France 2-0 in the semi-finals before losing 2-1 to Croatia in the play-off, ending their journey with a memorable fourth place as the first African side to reach the last four.

Morocco are ahead of Senegal (19th), Tunisia (30th), Cameroon (33rd) and Nigeria (35th).

Japan are the best-ranked among Asian teams at 20th, in front of Iran (24th), South Korea (25th), Australia (27th), Saudi Arabia (49th) and Qatar (60th).

Singapore remained at the 160th spot – the Lions are behind Asean neighbours Vietnam (96th), Thailand (111th), Philippines (134th), Malaysia (145th), Indonesia (151st) and Myanmar (159th). AFP, Xinhua