Ranking boost for Bangladesh women ahead of Asian qualifiers

Bangladesh women's football team made a significant stride in the latest FIFA Women's World Ranking, climbing five spots to 128th-- a timely boost ahead of the AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers.

The latest rankings, released by FIFA on Thursday, brought welcome news for Bangladesh as they emerged as the only South Asian nation to improve their position. 

The improvement comes on the back of two impressive draws in recent international friendlies: a goalless stalemate against 95th-ranked Indonesia and a spirited 2-2 comeback draw against 75th-ranked Jordan.

The efforts of Afeida Khandokar, Monika Chakma and Ritu Porno Chakma were central to the commendable performances, helping Peter Butler's side secure results against higher-ranked opponents.

While Bangladesh celebrated progress, the rest of South Asia faced stagnation or setbacks. India slipped one place to 70th after back-to-back losses to Uzbekistan, while Nepal followed suit, dropping to 100th after a defeat to Thailand. Sri Lanka too went down one spot to 159th after a loss to Saudi Arabia.

Bhutan held steady at 171st despite two draws against Hong Kong, while Pakistan (159) and the Maldives (163) remained unchanged due to inactivity.

Bangladesh's AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers campaign begins on June 29 in Myanmar, where they have been drawn in Group C alongside hosts Myanmar, Bahrain, and Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, USA and FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 champions Spain continue as the top two nations in the ranking but FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 hosts Brazil are closing fast after an enormously impressive series of friendly victories.

In a rematch of last year's Women's Olympic Football Tournament gold medal match, the Canarinhas topped USA 2-1 in California, while also defeating Japan in a pair of contests. Those three triumphs allowed Brazil to jump from eighth place to fourth, their highest ranking for more than a decade: they had last been ranked fourth in December 2013.

Despite their defeat to Brazil, USA stayed in first place, but their lead over world champions Spain was cut to just over 20 points, down from almost 50 in March and nearly 60 at the end of last year. Germany continued in third, followed by fast-rising Brazil and England, who fell one spot, to complete the top five.

Sweden are unchanged in sixth, while Japan fell two spots to seventh, Canada dropped one place to eighth, Korea DPR continued in ninth and France rose one spot to tenth.