Following draws with Slovenia and Belarus, Malta climbed one place in the Coca-Cola/FIFA Men’s World Ranking as published on Thursday and is now ranked 171st.

Malta drew 2-2 with Slovenia and then 0-0 with Belarus in two friendly matches last month.  Malta remains fourth from bottom among the other UEFA member countries, lying ahead of Liechtenstein (202, up 1), Gibraltar (203, down 2) and San Marino (210) Lying just ahead of Malta are the two countries which will be the opponents of Michele Marcolini’s side in the UEFA Nations League starting in September, Andorra (154) and Moldova (153, up 2).

The next commitment for Malta is a friendly match against Czechia in June, who are currently ranked 36th, up 4, which will be followed by another friendly match against an opponent who is yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile Argentina (1st) continue to lead the way ahead of France (2nd), but Belgium (3rd, up 1) have returned to the podium at the expense of England (4th, down 1). Brazil (5th) complete the top five, but Portugal (6th, up 1) are now knocking on the door. The Netherlands (7th, down 1) have slipped one place, whereas Spain (8th), Italy (9th) and Croatia (10th) have all held on to their positions.

USA (11th, up 2), Colombia (12th, up 2), Ukraine (22nd, up 2) and Poland (28th, up 2) have all made progress up the ranking, as have Czechia (36th, up 4), Palestine (93rd, up 4) and Kyrgyz Republic (100th, up 4), all of whom have taken the biggest strides among the top 100 teams.