ZURICH (Reuters) - World champions Germany pushed Brazil back into second place to return to the top of the FIFA rankings, which was published on Thursday. European champions Portugal climbed three places to third -- even though they are second in their World Cup qualifying group behind Switzerland. War-torn Syria, who have reached the Asian playoff stage in the World Cup qualifiers despite playing their 'home' World Cup qualifiers in Malaysia because of the security situation in the country, rose to their highest-ever ranking of 75. Three other teams reached their best-ever place - Peru (12th), Northern Ireland (20th) and Luxemburg (101st) after they held France to a 0-0 draw away. The next FIFA rankings will be announced on Oct. 16 and used to determine the seedings in the draw for the four European playoff ties for next year's World Cup finals in Russia.

Source: The Star September 14, 2017 09:00 UTC