Following two back-to-back 2-0 defeats to England and Lithuania, Malta slipped two places to 178th in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking which was published on Thursday.

Malta is ranked 51st among the other European countries. Lying just ahead of Malta are Luxembourg (125, up 15), Cyprus (down 52), FYR Macedonia (155, down 9), Kosovo (164, up 4) and Moldova (173, down 12) while Liechtenstein (183, down 1), San Marino (201), Andorra (203) and Gibraltar (205) are behind Malta.

The national team will be in action next month in another European Qualifier against Slovenia on November 11 and a friendly match against Iceland on November 15. Both games will be played at Ta’ Qali.

Photo: Copyright © Paul Zammit Cutajar

Meanwhile following another packed round of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifiers, there has been a reshuffle on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking podium as Germany and Brazil have moved into second and third respectively. Belgium (4th, down 2) have fallen out of the top three for the first time since March 2015, with Colombia slipping to fifth (down 1), while defeated UEFA EURO 2016 finalists France (up 1) have leap-frogged European champions Portugal (8th, down 1) into seventh.

Spain return to the top ten while Poland (15th, up 2), Iceland (21st, up 6) and Kosovo (164th, up 4) have moved up to their highest-ever placings.

The biggest rise in terms of places and points this month has gone the way of Montenegro (56th, up 49). There have also been impressive leaps from the likes of Azerbaijan (88th, up 45) and Faroe Islands (74th, up 37) – the latter equalling their highest-ever position.

On the other hand, Cyprus (139th, down 52) suffer the heaviest drop in the ranking. Meanwhile there have been notable two-figure demotions for Russia (53rd, down 15) – taking them out of the top 50, Finland (101st, down 17) and Latvia (116th, down 21) – seeing them move out of the top 100.