Football
Dale Johnson, General Editor, ESPN FC 8y

FIFA World Ranking: Belgium poised to take over from Argentina at No. 1

Belgium will take over as the No. 1 nation in the FIFA World Ranking if they win at home to Israel on Tuesday.

Belgium are currently third in the most recent ranking which was published at the start of the month, but with Germany being beaten in Republic of Ireland and current No. 1 Argentina losing at home to Ecuador, they can now climb to the summit for the first time in their history.

Victory for Belgium will place them on 1440 ranking points, and even if Argentina win in Paraguay they can score no more than 1429. Germany's score in the next ranking, which is released on Nov. 5, will be 1388 as they have already played their two games.

They were as low as 66th in the ranking in 2009, so moving to the very top in the space of six years would be a remarkable achievement. 

Such would be the difference in ranking points, if Belgium lost at home to Israel they could drop out of the top three below Portugal and could also be overtaken by Colombia.

Wales' short spell in the top 10 will come to an end next month, with the best position they can hope for being 12th -- though they are likely to drop further than that once all games have been played.

Uruguay could be one of the big climbers inside the top 20 after their opening World Cup qualifiers. Current in 20th, victory at home to Colombia will see them move up to 13th at the very least, and likely a few places higher.

Coach Marc Wilmots has another reason not to take his side's final Euro 2016 qualifier lightly, as victory would also put them in a strong position for the final place among the seeds in the Euro 2016 finals draw.

France, Spain, Germany, England and Portugal are already assured of being in pot 1. Netherlands would take the final place should they qualify, but that looks unlikely. If the Dutch do miss out, then Belgium will be seeded should they beat Israel, and Italy not beat Norway by a greater margin of four goals.

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