Warriors move eight places up

THE Warriors continued with their steady progress on the Fifa rankings when they moved eight places up the ladder to position 102 in the world yesterday.

Zimbabwe kept making gains despite not being involved in important matches like the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers which are currently underway.

They have also not played a high-profile international friendly match in a while although recently they hosted lowly-ranked Tanzania and won 3-0 at the National Sports Stadium.

Zimbabwe still took their points tally to 334 from 323. Callisto Pasuwa’s men, who are preparing for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon early next year, also moved six places on the continental rankings from 34th to number 28th.

But they still remain the bottom ranked nation among the 16 finalists. Zimbabwe, who at the beginning of the year hit their worst ranking after plunging to number 131, look likely to end the year without breaking into the top 100 with the final ranking for 2016 set to be published on December 22.

But their rivals in Group B of the Afcon tournament maintained their positions in the top five of the continental rankings.

Senegal are now the top-ranked nation in Africa after dislodging reigning African champions Cote d’Ivoire. Tunisia moved into third position while Algeria dropped to fifth.

Lionel Messi-led Argentina remained top of the global rankings with Germany and Brazil moving into second and third places at the expense of Belgium who slipped from number two to number four.