Two months before the World Cup in Russia begins, the latest FIFA ranking gives us a rather interesting look at the state of the Croatia national team.
April 12, 2018 – FIFA has announced the latest ranking of the world’s best national football teams, which, unlike last month, has produced many changes.
Thanks to the double program of friendly matches held in March by most of the national teams, both participating and not participating in this year’s World Cup in Russia, the latest FIFA ranking has gone through the ringer, causing a stir in the top 10 best teams and beyond.
The Croatia national team, for example, has dropped three places from 15th to 18th on the ranking. We can attribute this downfall to the 0:2 loss against Peru in Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium. Even though six of Croatia’s beloved veteran players left to their clubs after the troubling defeat, the standout performance by Croatia’s younger squad in the victory against Mexico in Dallas was not enough for Croatia to hold onto the 15th position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=S7xGT9gphf0
In looking at the top ten best teams in the world, Germany, as expected, remains at the top, followed by Brazil in second – but behind them is a brand new order.
The Belgium national team has skipped both Portugal and Argentina to move into third place, and the best result in recent history was recorded by Switzerland, who climbed to the sixth position, and by France, who jumped two spots to be immediately behind the Swiss in seventh.
Among other things, it is definitely worth noting Tunisia’s great jump of nine places. After defeating Iran and Costa Rica in friendly matches in March, Tunisia is currently in the 14th position as their best result in history.
Poland, on the other hand, significantly fell from 6th to 10th place, and Italy, who did not qualify for the tournament this summer, dropped from 14th to 20th.
Of Croatia’s opponents in the upcoming World Cup, Argentina is ranked best in 5th, Iceland in 22nd, and Nigeria holds the lowest ranking in the group in 47th place.
Croatia’s next friendly matches are scheduled in June, the first of which will be against Brazil in England on June 3rd. The venue for the spectacle has yet to be announced. Following the Brazil friendly, Croatia will return to their home soil for a friendly match against Senegal at Osijek’s City Garden Stadium on June 8th. Croatia’s first game in the World Cup is against Nigeria on June 16th at Kaliningrad stadium which holds 35,000 spectators.
FIFA Ranking:
1. Germany 1533 points
2. Brazil 1384
3. Belgium 1346
4. Portugal 1306
5. Argentina 1254
6. Switzerland 1179
7. France 1166
8. Spain 1162
9. Chile 1146
10. Poland 1118
11. Peru 1106
12. Denmark 1054
13 England 1040
14. Tunisia 1012
15. Mexico 1008
16. Colombia 989
17. Uruguay 976
18. Croatia 975
19. Netherlands 969
20. Italy 947
…
22. Iceland 930
…
47. Nigeria 635
…
Excerpts taken from Gol.hr
