Germany and Argentina have consolidated their position as the top two countries in the FIFA rankings.Germany and Argentina have consolidated their position as the top two countries in the FIFA rankings.

World Cup finalists Germany and Argentina have slightly extended their lead over the chasing pack and remain unchallenged at the top of the FIFA world rankings. They are followed in third position by Colombia, who have swapped places with the Netherlands.

The Oranje have paid dearly for their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Czech Republic in their opening qualifying match for Euro 2016.

For their part, Colombia have equalled their highest-ever position, Los Cafeteros having previously achieved third in July and August 2013.

In the top 10, meanwhile, Brazil (6th, up 1) and France (9th, up 1) have gained ground, while Uruguay (7th), Spain (8th) and Switzerland (10th) have each dropped a place.

However, this month’s biggest winners are Guatemala, whose three wins in four matches in the qualifiers for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015 have seen the team led by coach Ivan Franco Sopegno leap by 77 places to 57th in the table. The win against World Cup participants Honduras yielded many of those points.

With Iceland (34th, up 12), Congo (48th, up 30) and Antigua and Barbuda (80th, up 69), September saw three teams reaching their highest-ever position since the world rankings were introduced in 1993.

Of the 141 international ‘A’ matches taken into account for this month’s ranking, over half of them (80) were continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and CONCACAF, the other 61 fixtures being friendlies. This takes the total number of international matches played in 2014 so far to 526.

Meanwhile, Malta were unable to arrest their slide down the FIFA rankings after dropping five places to 155th on 133 points. This month, Malta lost two international matches as their 1-0 friendly defeat to Slovakia was followed by a 2-0 loss to Croatia in their opening Euro 2016 Group H qualifier.

The national team are currently ranked just below Malaysia but lag far behind fellow European minnows Luxembourg (127th).

The only consolation for Malta is that they remain ahead of Liechtenstein (172), Faroe Islands (179) and Andorra (203).

Top 20

1. Germany 1,765; 2. Argentina 1,631; 3. Colombia 1,488; 4. Netherlands 1,456; 5. Belgium 1,444; 6. Brazil 1,291; 7. Uruguay 1,243; 8. Spain 1,228; 9. France 1,202; 10. Switzerland 1,175; 11. Portugal 1,150; 12. Chile 1,100; 13. Italy 1,068; 14. Greece 1,052; 15. Costa Rica 988; 16. Mexico 963; 17. US 936; 18. England 935; 19. Croatia 928; 20. Algeria 926.

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