After losing 7-0 to Spain and 1-2 to Norway, Malta dropped to 184th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Ranking as published on Thursday.

Malta is therefore now third bottom from Europe, ahead of Gibraltar (196) and San Marino (209). Lying just ahead of Malta are Moldova (175) and Liechtenstein (180, up 1).

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For the time being there are no scheduled fixtures for the national team ahead of the UEFA Nations League commitments between September and November next year. Malta is yet to appoint a new coach to replace Ray Farrugia but the favourite seems to be former Italy Under-21 national coach Devis Mangia.

Meanwhile despite 177 A-level international matches being played, the top five remains unchanged and there is only one change in the top ten, with Croatia (6th, up 1) climbing for the second successive edition at the expense of Portugal (7th, down 1). There are, however, more significant changes further down the table, with Italy (13th, up 2), Poland (19th, up 2), Serbia (29th, up 4) and Nigeria (31st, up 4) pushing their way upwards.