Russia drop to 11th in FIFA Rankings, Spain remain No.1

Moscow - Ecuador have squeezed Russia out of the world’s top ten football nations, new rankings published by FIFA showed Thursday.

Reinaldo Rueda’s team posted a 4-1 win over Paraguay in 2014 World Cup qualifying and a 5-0 thrashing of El Salvador in a friendly to snatch Russia’s tenth place.

Fabio Capello’s side slips to No. 11 after Russia’s March program was reduced to a 1-1 friendly draw with Brazil. A March 22 World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland was postponed due to poor weather in Belfast.

Otherwise, Croatia made the biggest rankings leap this month, climbing five places to fourth after victories over Serbia and Wales.

The other losers are England, down three places to seventh, Italy, who have also slipped three positions to eighth, and the Dutch, who drop a place to ninth.

There was no change to top three, led by Spain, Germany and Argentina, respectively.