The Indian football team has dropped 10 places to be placed 107 in the latest FIFA ranking released on Thursday. The Sunil Chhetri-led side notched up two victories and a draw in three matches after they were placed 97th last month.
India beat Mauritius and held Saint Kitts and Nevis to a draw to clinch the Tri-nation football series before defeating Macau in an away fixture in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualification third round.
India have dropped below the 100th spot for the first time since May. The Blue Tigers had achieved one of their best rankings in recent history when they climbed to the 96th spot in July.
Germany return to top
World champions Germany pushed Brazil back into second place to return to the top of the FIFA rankings. Germany's 2-1 win away to the Czech Republic and their 6-0 drubbing of Norway in the World Cup qualifiers lifted them over the already-qualified Brazil, who dropped points in a draw away to Colombia.
European champions Portugal climbed three places to third -- even though they are second in their World Cup qualifying group behind Switzerland. In another surprise, Argentina are fourth in the rankings despite struggling to qualify for the World Cup after drawing their last two games - away to Uruguay and at home to Venezuela.
War-torn Syria, who have reached the Asian playoff stage in the World Cup qualifiers despite playing their 'home' World Cup qualifiers in Malaysia because of the security situation in the country, rose to their highest-ever ranking of 75.
Three other teams reached their best-ever place - Peru (12th), Northern Ireland (20th) and Luxemburg (101st) after they held France to a 0-0 draw away.
The rankings made disappointing reading for Asia with only three sides in the top 50 - Iran, Japan and Australia.
The next FIFA rankings will be announced on Oct. 16 and used to determine the seedings in the draw for the four European playoff ties for next year's World Cup finals in Russia.
(Inputs from Reuters)
