Malta climbed seven places in the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking which was published on Thursday and is now ranked 127th.

Among the other European countries, Malta is now ranked 48th. Lying just ahead of Malta are Georgia (103, down 4), Lithuania (104, up 1), Latvia (109, up 4), Luxembourg (112, up 8) and Kazakhstan (118, up 9). Behind Malta are Cyprus (128, down 6), Liechtenstein (149, up 2), Faroe Islands (164, down 2), Andorra (199) and San Marino (207).

Photo: Copyright © Joe Borg

Malta will be in action in June in a friendly match against Gibraltar. Another friendly match is scheduled in September against Slovakia before facing Croatia in the first match from the EURO 2016 qualifiers.

Meanwhile Europe occupies the top three places on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking after Portugal climbed third behind leaders Spain and Germany. They are followed by four South American sides in Colombia (4th, up 1), Uruguay (5th, up 1) and fierce rivals Argentina (down 3) and Brazil (up 3), who share sixth position. Just 12 points separate this quartet.

Greece return to the top ten for the first time since October 2012, while Scotland (22nd, up 15) are the only team to have climbed over ten places.

Two teams managed to reach their highest-ever positions: Azerbaijan (85th, up 6) and Afghanistan (122nd, up 5).

Conversely, a number of teams have dropped by more than ten places: Albania (70th, down 16), Israel (78th, down 13), New Zealand (111th, down 21), Liberia (119th, down 22), Dominican Republic (126th, down 15), Tajikistan (133rd, down 12), New Caledonia (136th, down 18), Philippines (143rd, down 13), Turkmenistan (156th, down 14), Tahiti (157th, down 19) and Hong Kong (158th, down 13).