The Malta women’s national team climbed five places in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking to end 2016 in the 96th place.

After being eliminated from the UEFA Women’s EURO last year, Malta was not involved in any qualifiers in 2016, playing four friendly matches and four matches in the Aphrodite Cyprus Cup. Malta defeated Latvia 3-0 in January and Andorra twice – 3-0 and 4-0 last month. In another friendly match with Latvia, Malta drew 1-1. In the Aphrodite Cup, Malta drew 1-1 with Israel, defeated Estonia 2-0 and lost 2-3 to Lithuania and 0-1 to Cyprus.

Among the other European countries, Malta is ranked 44th, ahead of Luxembourg, Georgia, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia and Andorra apart from Azerbaijan and Armenia who were inactive for the past months.

Malta will be involved in the UEFA European Qualifying Competition for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup which will be held early in April.

Photo: Copyright © Jonathan Bugeja