Malta went down another place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and is now 159th in the latest ranking published on Thursday.

Malta remains third from bottom in Europe, lying behind Moldova (127, down 3), Kazakhstan 141, up 1), Luxembourg (145, up 1), Liechtenstein (147) and Georgia (154, down 1). San Marino (192) and Andorra (201, up 1) are the bottom two in Europe.

The next two games for Malta are against Italy on September 3 in Firenze and against Azerbaijan three days later at Ta’ Qali.

Meanwhile the August edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking shows a change in the top three, with Belgium (2nd, up 1) swapping places with Germany (3rd, down 1) behind leaders Argentina. A little below them, Chile (10th, up 1) have entered the top ten at the expense of the Netherlands (12th, down 7). The loss of points by Germany and the Netherlands is due to the devaluation of last year’s FIFA World Cup™ matches.

Further down the global ladder, the CONCACAF Gold Cup finalists have made good ground: Mexico (26th, up 14), winners of the trophy for the tenth time, have risen 14 places, while this year’s surprise package, Jamaica (55th, up 21), are now just outside the top 50 following a sizeable 21-spot leap.

In addition to the above teams, Albania (22nd, up 14), Malawi (98th, up 10), Sierra Leone (104th, up 7), Mauritania (113rd, up 15), Swaziland (132nd, up 6), Guam (146th, up 8) and Guyana (152nd, up 7) all went up by more than five places in August.

The following teams have achieved their highest-ever position: Wales (9th, up 1), Austria (14th, up 1), Slovakia (14th, up 1), Albania (22nd, up 14), Congo (43rd, up 4) and Guam (146th, up 8).