England, Northern Ireland And Wales Climb Fifa Rankings

Home nations England, Northern Ireland and Wales have been catapulted up the Fifa world rankings after successful starts to their European Championship qualifying campaigns. A respectable, though nonetheless disappointing, 2-1 loss away to World Champions Germany have seen Scotland fall one place to 29th.

Gordon Strachan`s side equalised with a well-worked goal from Watford`s right-winger Ikechi Anya after the Germans` opened the scoring thanks to Thomas Muller`s looping header. It wasn`t meant to be, however, as Muller struck again just four minutes after the leveller, the Scots` defence being opened up by a simple corner routine. The misery of the Tartan Army was compounded in the closing minutes of the game with Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew being awarded two yellow cards in quick succession, the first for a terrible tackle on Marco Reus and the second for kicking the ball away in frustration.

The defeat means that Scotland occupies fourth position in Group D, with Germany the clear 1/10 (bet365, betfair, ladbrokes, Skybet, Stan James) favourites to top the group. Qualification for the Scots depends on securing victories over their key rivals Poland and the Republic of Ireland. Both sides can be backed at 7/5, Poland with 888sport and 32red and the Republic of Ireland with Bwin, to make it through to the first round proper of France 2016. Bwin have odds of 21/10 on the Scottish reaching the group stage of the competition for the first time since 1996.

Tied with Scotland at 29th in Fifa`s rankings are Chris Coleman`s Wales who have achieved their highest position in the table since 1993. Coleman`s side had to overcome a much-maligned synthetic playing surface to defeat minnows Andorra 2-1 away from home in their first game in Group B. It took the might of Gareth Bale to secure an unconvincing win for Wales, who are looking to qualify for the tournament for the first time since reaching the quarter-finals in 1976. The Real Madrid star bagged a goal in each half to cancel out Ildefons Lima`s sixth minute penalty.

Wales look to capitalise on the hard-earned three points by taking down Bosnia-Herzegovina in their next clash on Friday 10th October. Automatic qualification hopefuls Bosnia have been made 23/15 favourites with Betbright despite their away disadvantage. Wales can be backed at 19/12 whilst a draw is currently available at 45/19 with the same bookmaker. Belgium are the odds-on favourite (4/11, betfair) to make their way out of the group, with the Welsh currently 20/1 (Numerous) alongside Israel (betfair, boylesports, Stan James).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, England are the highest ranked off all the home nations, having been shunted up two places thanks to a 2-0 dispatching of Switzerland. Two second half goals from £16 million Arsenal signing Danny Welbeck was enough to earn Roy Hodgson`s men victory over their closest qualification rivals in Basel. Captained by newly appointed Wayne Rooney, England are 1/3 (betfair) to top their group and 1/100 (Betbright) to fend off Group E whipping boys San Marino on 9th October. Finally, Northern Ireland have leaped 24 places to 71st in the rankings after a somewhat unexpected win against Hungary in Group F. Michael O`Neill`s boys in green snatched victory from the jaws of defeat after conceding in the 75th minute away in Budapest. Two late goals from Niall McGinn and Kyle Lafferty, however, ensured the jubilant return flight for the side looking to qualify for the competition for the first time. In perhaps the easiest group of all alongside Romania, Greece, Hungary, Finland and the Faroe Islands, O`Neill`s men are 4/1 (Bwin) to finally make that breakthrough.

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18/09/2014     © Frixo 2024