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What's the story?
The Indian national football team could be all set for a boost in the new year's first update of the FIFA World Ranking, according to Romanian ranking expert Eduard Ranghuic.
With the latest rankings set to be published on Thursday, India could probably rise to as high as 101 on the charts, a four-place jump for the Blue Tigers.
In case you didn't know...
The Indian team finished 2017 in 105th place in the official rankings, which was a 30-rank leap from the start of the previous year. Over the course of the last 12 months, Stephen Constantine's men have been on an incredible unbeaten streak and also broke into the Top 100 in May 2017.
The heart of the matter
Ranghuic is a highly reputed football mathematician and his ranking predictions in the previous months have shown an incredible degree of accuracy. In the previous two months, he had predicted India's position to remain at 105, which it did once the official rankings were out.
According to the Romanian, India are set to add 13 ranking points to their existing tally which will take their overall total from 320 to 333 and thus bring about a four-place leap in the rankings.
As far as the top nations are concerned, no change is expected in the Top 10 of the rankings. It is Germany, Brazil and Portugal who are set to take the first, second and third places respectively.
What's next?
The Indian team has already sealed their berth in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and in their last qualifier, they will face the Kyrgyz Republic on March 27.
Author's take
A rise in the world rankings is always welcome and one hopes it will spur on the players to put their best foot forward once they take to the pitch and prepare for the all-important Asian Cup.
