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**EalingGreen** · 23/12/2006, 2:05 PM

Belfast Telegraph: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

By Stuart McKinley

Sanchez's boys stay put in the nifty fifty

Northern Ireland's impressive late run in 2006 has seen the international side make the top 10 in the world.

FIFA's latest rankings, the final list published this year, shows that Northern Ireland stayed in the top 50 of the rankings, one ahead of the Republic of Ireland, in 48th place - but in the calendar year only eight countries gained more points than Lawrie Sanchez's side.

And five of those are not only in the top ten of the world rankings, but they also reached the latter stages of the World Cup.

World champions Italy, semi-finalists Germany and runners-up France were the top three teams in the points table.

Portugal - who also made the semi-final - and Argentina, also came in above Northern Ireland, as did Qatar and Guinea.

Northern Ireland also made the top of the list of teams making the biggest rise up the rankings in 2006. The move from 103 to 48 saw a jump of 55 places, one more than Guinea who rose 54 places over the year.

The 3-2 win over Spain in September scored high in points value as they were in the top ten at the time of that game.

The scoreless draw in Denmark a month later also scored well as they were placed in 16th place - although they dropped to 22nd a month later.

The next rankings in January are unlikely to show any real change, with Northern Ireland's home friendly against Wales in February the next available game from which to score some points.