Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-04-05 02:45:00
| Les Barea conservent la 109e place au nouveau classement Fifa. |
Results of Barea in friendly matches in February did not bring any improvement to the new Fifa ranking, updated yesterday.
After the two friendly matches against Burundi (1-0) and Rwanda (0-2), within the FIFA window, at the end of February, Barea’s ranking remains unchanged. FIFA released yesterday the updated world ranking of men’s national teams. Madagascar stays at 109th place, after the three recent publications on February 15, December 21, 2023, and November 30. In the two previous publications, the island was ranked 108th on October 26 and September 21.
Four out of the five nations in Madagascar’s group in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup were able to climb a few spots. Mali, the highest-ranked country in the group, moves up three spots to 44th place. Comoros are at 117th place (+4), ahead of the Central African Republic at 128th place (+1). And Chad has made a significant leap of five spots to 176th place. Only Ghana loses one spot and drops to 68th place. The teams in Madagascar’s group have shown progress in friendly matches in recent months. Barea are in third place after the first two
qualifiers for the World Cup, with 3 points. The island suffered an opening loss against Ghana and a 3-0 victory over Chad in November.
Upheaval
The Comoran Coelacanths take the pole position with six points after their two impressive home victories, and the Malian Eagles occupy the second place with 4 points. Madagascar will host Comoros in early June, counting for the third qualifying match for the World Cup, while the match against Mali will take place a few days later, still at home. Apart from Comoros in the Indian Ocean region, Mauritius, which missed out on the qualification for the next round of the African Cup of Nations, drops six places (183rd), unlike Seychelles, which gains two spots (197th).
In the African continent, the perennial leader, Morocco, drops one spot and settles for 13th place. It is followed by Senegal (17th), Nigeria (30th), Egypt (37th), and Cote d’Ivoire (38th). There is also a slight change in the top 10 in the world. Argentina maintains the top spot ahead of France. Belgium moves up one spot to 3rd place ahead of England, which drops one spot, and Brazil is in fifth place. Portugal is in sixth place, ahead of the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Croatia.
Serge Rasanda
