Bulgaria Climbs 12 Positions to 66th Place in FIFA World Ranking

The Bulgarian men's national football team training before the last EURO 2016 qualifiers against Azerbaijan. Photo: BGNES

The Bulgarian men's national football team climbed 12 positions to 66th place in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which was released on Thursday.

At present, Bulgaria has 497 points and occupies the place between the teams of Panama and the United Arab Emirates.

The progress in the ranking comes after Bulgaria suffered a 0:3 defeat to Croatia and recorded a 2:0 victory over Azerbaijan in the last two UEFA EURO 2016 qualifiers played in October.

Bulgaria came fourth in the final standing of qualification Group H, finishing eight points behind the third place, which would have allowed the team to proceed to the play-offs.

Belgium climbed to the top of the ranking for the first time in history.

The reigning world champion Germany retained its second position, while the previous leader in the ranking Argentina dropped to third place.

Portugal retained its fourth place, while the reigning Copa America champion Chile climbed four positions to fifth place.

The top ten is completed by the reigning European champion Spain, which retained its sixth position, followed by Colombia, Brazil, England and Austria.

The worst mover in the ranking is the team of Sudan, which dropped 44 positions to 128th place, while Chad is the best mover having climbed 39 positions to occupy the 136th place.

Three teams are at the bottom of the ranking with no points - Anguilla, Bahamas and Djibouti.

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