England national team: Three Lions move up on FIFA World ranking

After England’s remarkable World Cup run, the Three Lions moved up on the updated FIFA World ranking.

After reaching the semi-finals and ending the tournament in 4th, England went up to 6th in the updated FIFA World Ranking that was revealed on August 16th. It was a major improvement considering that England was sitting in 12th, in the last ranking.

Before losing to Belgium in the World Cup group stages, England was on a 12 match unbeaten streak and qualified unbeaten for the World Cup. The 4th place finish in Russia was enough to lift the country to a 6th place in the ranking.

England qualified 2nd in the Group Stages in the World Cup, in a group that consisted of Belgium, Tunisia and Panamá. In the round of 16, Gareth Southgate’s side eliminated Colombia in an epic game, which was followed by a 2-0 win over Sweden in the quarter-finals, enough to achieve England’s best finish in a World Cup since 1990.

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Unfortunately for England, Croatia proved to be too much for them in the semi-finals, while also Belgium defeated The Three Lions in the 3rd place playoff.

While England’s luck during the tournament could’ve been better, the campaign was enough to revive the hope and excitement amongst England fans. It also proved to be an encouraging step in England’s DNA programme, which was announced in December 2014 and proposed a drastic change on how the country approaches development and culture in soccer.

With one of the youngest teams in the tournament, with also a manager who had the experience in England’s youth sides, the future looks promising. England are unifying the way they play in all youth teams, something that paid off in the World Cup and is reflected in the FIFA rankings, while the technical and tactical attributes discussed in the England DNA project have been developed.

Other ranking updates

World Cup winners France moved up 6 places and topped the table after their triumph in the Luzhniki a month ago. World Cup finalist Croatia moved an outstanding 16 places and are sitting in 4th.

Two expressive nations that moved out of the top 10 are Argentina and Germany. The 2014 World Cup winners went down by 14 places, now sitting 15th after their miserable World Cup campaign. La Albiceleste are now in 11th, falling 6 places on the table.

Entering the top 10 are the aforementioned Croatia, who are 4th place, Uruguay falls in next place, with England coming in at 6th place, and Denmark coming at 7. Another highlight is Russia, who moved up by 21 places and achieving the country’s highest place in the FIFA World Rankings.