Portugal finishes 2019 in seventh place in FIFA ranking
The Portuguese national team will finish the year in seventh place in the FIFA ranking today, despite having won the League of Nations, in a ranking that is still led by Belgium.
After finishing 2018 in sixth place, Portugal moved up to fifth place in September this year, but in October it fell to sixth and in November dropped to seventh, a position it will maintain until the end of 2019.
This year, Fernando Santos’s side won the first edition of the League of Nations, whose final was played in Porto, and secured a place in the Euro2020 finals, with second place in Group B.
In a year in which they played 10 games, all official, Portugal had seven wins, two draws and only suffered a 2-1 defeat by Ukraine in Kiev in October.
The last match took place on 17 November, with a 2-0 win in Luxembourg, which confirmed qualification for the next European Championship in which they will defend the title.
In a ‘top-10’ that has no positional changes again, the leadership has been in Belgium for over a year since October 25, 2018, with the ‘red devils’ ahead of world champion France, who will be Portugal’s Euro2020 opponent, and Brazil’s third, while England come fourth.
The national team appears ahead of Spain, which is eighth, and behind Uruguay, fifth, and Croatia, sixth. Germany, who will also be the team’s opponents at the upcoming European Championship, remain in 15th place.
Colombia, coached by Carlos Queiroz, remains in 10th place, being the fourth country of CONMEBOL, South American zone, in the ‘top-10’, behind Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, which is ninth.
Among the other teams with Portuguese coaches, Paulo Bento’s South Korea moved up to 40th, and Cameroon, trained by António Conceição, kept 53rd.
Bahrain, coached by Hélio Sousa, climbed just one place despite winning the Gulf Cup and will finish the year in 99th place.
– FIFA Ranking on December 19:
1. Belgium, 1,765.
2. France, 1,733.
3. Brazil, 1,712.
4. England, 1,661.
5. Uruguay, 1,645.
6. Croatia, 1,642.
7. Portugal, 1,639.
8. Spain, 1636.
9. Argentina, 1,623
10. Colombia, 1622
