Portugal and Ukraine make rankings gains
Monday, June 15, 2015
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Portugal and Ukraine have made progress in the top ten of the latest interim UEFA national team coefficient rankings, while Belgium have slipped three places.
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Portugal, Belgium and Ukraine are the big movers in the top ten of the latest interim UEFA national team coefficient rankings following the most recent round of UEFA EURO 2016 qualifiers.
Saturday's 3-2 victory in Armenia took Portugal up to fifth place, a rise of two from the previous set of rankings in April, while Ukraine climbed five places to tenth thanks to their 3-0 defeat of Luxembourg on Sunday. Italy, who drew 1-1 in Croatia, are up one to seventh, while Belgium are the only team to drop in the top ten, slipping three spots to eighth after losing 1-0 in Wales.
World champions Germany, who won 7-0 away to Gibraltar, remain top with a ranking of 40.203, with holders Spain (37.163) second and England (35.903) third. The Netherlands (35.319) are fourth while Portugal (34.208) complete the top five.
Switzerland jump three places to 11th courtesy of their 2-1 victory in Lithuania while Sweden (14th) and Poland (15th) are also up three places. Romania are now 16th, a fall of four, and Friday's 2-1 defeat in Iceland means the Czech Republic drop to 17th – a slip of seven.
That is the biggest change for any country, while Wales are the largest climbers, the success against Belgium giving them a new coefficient of 25.515 and taking Chris Coleman's team into 25th position – a leap of four. Elsewhere, the Faroe Islands' reward for beating Greece is a climb of three places to 47th and a new ranking of 14.367.
Overall, compared with the rankings at the time of the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying draw, Slovakia are now 12th having been 25th while Austria are up from 27th to 13th. Poland (27th to 15th), Romania (26th to 16th) and Iceland (38th to 22nd) are among the other big risers, with Wales having started 34th and currently sitting 25th.
*The national team coefficients are calculated on a country's recent results. In the current rankings, 20% weighting is given to UEFA EURO 2012 results (qualifying/final tournament), and 40% each to the 2014 FIFA World Cup (qualifying/final tournament) and UEFA EURO 2016 (qualifying).
