Malta moves up three places in FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s rankings

The Malta women’s national team has climbed three places in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola world rankings following the 2-0 victory against Montenegro in their latest international appointment in September.

Malta is now ranked 88th in the world after gaining 5.19 points. Among the 53 UEFA members, Malta sits 37th and has a total of 1236.19 points

Malta and Montenegro met in September’s final 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier, with the Eastern European nation sitting 87th at the time.

Goals from Maria Farrugia and Emma Lipman earned Malta a 2-0 victory which helped the Maltese to finish their campaign with a record-seven point tally in a World Cup qualification.

During this campaign, Malta scored two away victories - Azerbaijan (1-2) and Montenegro (0-2) while they held Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-2 on home soil.

Bosnia-Herzegovina went on to grab the play-off spot where they faced Wales to whom they lost at the death in extra-time in Cardiff, last week.

The three teams at the top in the August 2022 ranking are still there, with one slight change in the order.

Though USA (1st, - ) remain out front, Sweden (2nd, plus 1) have jumped into second place at the expense of Germany (3rd, minus 1). England (4th, - ) and France (5th, - ) complete the top five.

There is plenty of movement below them. After their 2-0 defeat of USA on Tuesday, Spain (6th, plus 2) climb two places, while Netherlands (8th, minus 2) drop two.

No fewer than nine teams between 11th and 20th changed positions, among them Belgium (20th, minus 1), who suffered the biggest points drop in the whole ranking (minus 32.46).

Newly qualified for the intercontinental play-offs for Australia & New Zealand 2023, Portugal (23rd, plus 4) were the highest climbers in the Top 50 with a rise of four places and 54.19 points.

However, nobody made more progress in the October ranking than Estonia (96th, plus 10), who leapt ten places into the top 100, while Bangladesh (140th, plus 7) rose seven themselves.

Two new teams have joined since the publication of the previous ranking in August: Syria (157th) and Pakistan (160th).

This takes the total number of FIFA member associations now included in the women’s ranking to 187. FIFA has 211 member associations in all.

The next women’s rankings will be published on December 9.