![FIFA ranking - new leaders and rise of Lithuanians](https://www.eurofootball.com/img/uploaded/w482/2014/07/35703.jpg)
On Thursday, for the seventh time this year, the Lithuanian national team, with 312 points in the latest International Football Federation Associations (FIFA) world team ranking, regained two positions and moved up from 106th place to 104th.
Over the past six weeks, the Lithuanian team lost 7 points.
In the classification, Lithuania is surpassed by four future opponents in the E group of the 2016 European Football Championship qualification tournament - Switzerland, which has dropped to 9th place (1216 points), England, which has dropped to 20th place (911 points), Slovenia, which has dropped to 37th place (644 points), and Estonia, which has the highest position among the Baltic states at 92nd place (345 points).
Lithuania is only ahead of San Marino, which is the outsider of the FIFA ranking at 208th place.
By the way, in the new ranking, Latvia, Lithuania's closest Baltic neighbor, overtook the Lithuanian national team and rose to 103rd place with 314 points.
The new leader of the FIFA ranking is the world champion team of Germany (1724 points), surpassing the planet's vice-champion Argentina (1606 points) in second place and the third place team of the world championship bronze medalist Netherlands (1496 points).
The fourth place team of the planet's championship host Brazil has dropped to seventh place in the new ranking, and the reigning European champion Spain, which firmly held the first place in the FIFA ranking for the past six weeks and lost the title of world champion, dropped to eighth place.
Also, the European Championship runner-up Italy saw a fiasco in Brazil and dropped to 14th place with 1056 points.
Here is the July FIFA ranking of the top teams (in parentheses - team position in the June ranking):
1. (2) Germany 1724 points
2. (5) Argentina 1606
3. (15) Netherlands 1496
4. (8) Colombia 1492
5. (11) Belgium 1401
6. (7) Uruguay 1330
7. (3) Brazil 1241
8. (1) Spain 1229
9. (6) Switzerland 1216
10. (17) France 1202
11. (4) Portugal 1148
12. (14) Chile 1098
13. (12) Greece 1091
14. (9) Italy 1056
15. (13) USA 989
16. (28) Costa Rica 986
17. (18) Croatia 955
18. (20) Mexico 930
19. (21) Bosnia and Herzegovina 917
20. (10) England 911
...
37. (25) Slovenia 644
...
92. (98) Estonia 345
...
103. (109) Latvia 314
104. (106) Lithuania 312
...
208. (207) San Marino 0
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