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Portugal have jumped nine places to fifth in FIFA’s latest world rankings while World Cup hosts Brazil are back in the top 10 in 10th place.
World and European champions Spain continue to lead ahead of Germany and Argentina in the rankings released on Thursday.
Colombia remain fourth and Uruguay sixth, while Italy are up a place to seventh, and Switzerland and the Netherlands both slip a place to eighth and ninth.
Football’s world governing body said Portugal’s improvement follows their two wins over Sweden in the European play-offs for the World Cup.
Belgium have meanwhile fallen six places to 11th and England also drop out of the top 10, down three places to 13th, after both lost home friendlies.
All the teams in the top 20, except for Ukraine, who have moved up two places to 18th, have qualified for next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil.
Three teams outside the leading 50 will also be in Brazil next year — Cameroon (51st), South Korea, (54th) and Australia (59th).
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