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A low quality
make-shift friendly match with West African neighbours, Sierra-Leone
counted for so little as the Super Eagles moved just a step up in the
latest rankings released yesterday by world football governing body,
FIFA.

The Super Eagles now occupy the 39th spot in the world rankings.

Though the Eagles
won the friendly against the Leone Stars 2-1, they still remain the
fourth best team in the African continent behind the likes of Ghana,
Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt.

Ghana dropped one
spot to become 16th in the world, but are still the highest ranked
African team with Cote D’ Ivoire as Africa’s second best team; 25th in
the world. Current African champions, Egypt are rated third in Africa
while occupying the 35th spot in the world.

Minor changes

According to FIFA, a total of 55 friendly matches were taken into account for the March edition of the world rankings.

Not many changes
were recorded as world champions, Spain still leads the overall
standing followed by the Netherlands in second and Germany in third
position.

Spain has been the top-ranked team in the world since winning the World Cup last July when it knocked Brazil from the top spot.

Even worse for the
Brazilians is the fact that they have now been overtaken by fierce
rivals Argentina, who now occupy fourth spot in the world rankings
ahead of the five-time former world champions.

England, Uruguay, Croatia, Portugal and Greece complete the list of the top ten teams in the world.

Task ahead

Meanwhile, the
Super Eagles stand a chance of making an upward movement on next
month’s rankings, which will be released by the world body on April 13,
as they have a competitive match ahead of them later this month.

The team will take
on Ethiopia in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match at the Abuja
National Stadium on Sunday March 27 with the knowledge that anything
other than a victory over the East Africans will end Nigeria’s dream of
qualifying for the tournament to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and
Gabon.

With just four
round of matches to go until the end of the qualifiers, the Super
Eagles need a convincing victory over the Ethiopians to put back their
Nations Cup participation aspirations back on the track as they
currently trail Guinea on the log by three points.

Naming the squad

Only the top placed
teams from each of the qualifying groups are guaranteed a ticket to the
biannual African championship. But Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia
has already promised to crush the Ethiopians who are currently ranked
124th in the world and 33rd in Africa.

The list of players to be invited for the must win match will be announced today by Siasia at a press conference in Abuja.

Already there are
speculations over those that may likely make the team list with the
likes of Obafemi Martins, Victor Anichebe and defender, Efe Ambrose
expected to make a surprise return to the Super Eagles team.

The FIFA world rankings are determined by points awarded from match
results in a three-year period, with more recent games given greater
weight while teams get additional points for playing relatively strong
opponents.