Malta slipped another place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and is now 160th as the latest ranking was published on Thursday.
Among the other European countries, Malta is still ranked 51st, ahead of San Marino (193, down 1) and Andorra (202, down 1). Lying just ahead of Malta are Luxembourg (141, up 4), Kazakhstan (145, down 4), Georgia (147, up 7) and Liechtenstein (150, down 3).
Malta plays Italy on Thursday and Andorra on Sunday in two matches from the European Qualifiers.
Meanwhile there is no change at the top of the September edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, with Argentina continuing to lead the way ahead of Belgium (2nd, unchanged) and Germany (3rd, unchanged).
Chile (8th, up 2) are the only team to have made significant movement in the top ten, and they are now in their highest-ever position since the revision of the global ladder in 2006. England (10th, down 2), however, have fallen two places, whereas both Austria (13th, up 1) and Congo (42nd, up 1) are in their best positions since 1993.