By Ntokozo Magongo
MBABANE – The National team, Sihlangu was un-moved from the 159 spot in the FIFA World rankings released on Thursday (December 19, 2024).
They maintained the same spot they were in when the rankings were released in November 24, since improving from 160 in October. There are 210 countries ranked by FIFA and the rankings are released almost every month especially when there has been international matches.
Sihlangu started the year ranked 149 and they drop after failing to win a match in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers.
The Zdrako Logarusic led side won 4-1 aggregate against Zimbabwe in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) Qualifiers last month recording a 3-0 victory in the first leg and a 1-all draw in the second leg.
They face Madagascar in the second round of the preliminaries. The first leg game will be played on Saturday (December 21, 2024) at Lucas Moripe Stadium, South Africa with the second leg fixture a week later away in Madagascar. The winner between the two sides will then qualify for the tournament to be jointly hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania from February 1-28, 2025.
Meanwhile, according to fifa.com, Argentina (1st) sign off for the year in top spot, with France (2nd) and Spain (3rd) joining them on the podium.
As for those in the chasing pack, England (4th), Brazil (5th), Portugal (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Belgium (8th), Italy (9th) and Germany (10th) all retain their places in the upper echelons of the ranking.
