Spain climb two places in FIFA rankings

Spain team applaud at the end of the World Cup 2018 qualifier football match Spain vs Albania at the Jose Rico Perez stadium in Alicante on October 6, 2017. JOSE JORDAN / AFP

Spain climbed two places to sixth and Switzerland were up three spots to eighth in the latest FIFA world rankings released on Thursday.

The top five remained unchanged with world champions Germany leading the way from Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium.

Switzerland’s victory over Northern Ireland in the World Cup play-offs helped them move up, as did similar successes for Denmark and Sweden.

Both Scandinavian countries moved up seven places to 12th and 18th respectively after ousting Republic of Ireland and Italy in the play-offs.

Despite their loss to Sweden denying them a place at the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, Italy still moved up one place to 14th.

It wasn’t such good news for British teams as England dropped three places to 15th despite a pair of credible 0-0 draws with Germany and Brazil recently.

Wales paid for their failure to reach the World Cup finals by dropping five places to 19th.

FIFA rankings as of November 23:

1. Germany

2. Brazil

3. Portugal

4. Argentina

5. Belgium

6. Spain (+2)

7. Poland (-1)

8. Switzerland (+3)

9. France (-2)

10. Chile (-1)

11. Peru (-1)

12. Denmark (+7)

13. Colombia

14. Italy (+1)

15. England (-3)

16. Mexico

17. Croatia (+1)

18. Sweden (+7)

19. Wales (-5)

20. Netherlands