The Super Eagles are unmoved in the latest ranking by FIFA released on Thursday, Completesportsnigeria.com can report.
Ranked 47th in the world for the month ot February 2014, the Stephen Keshi's side failed to chalk up any point, placing seventh on the continent despite playing out a goalless draw against Mexico in an international friendly last week.
The March edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World ranking has witnessed less movement than last month's, with Nigeria's group F opponents at the World Cup Argentina, alongside Spain, Germany, Portugal and Colombia remaining unchanged in the top five spots.
Close behind them are Uruguay (6th, up 1) and Switzerland (7th, down 1), while Belgium (10th, up 1) have jumped up into the top ten at the expense of the Netherlands (11th, down 1).
Meanwhile, England (12th, up 3) and Russia (19th, up 3) have made good progress in the top 20.
Another Eagles' 2014 World Cup opponent, Bosnia Herzegovina however dropped four places from 17th to 21st after their defeat to Egypt.
As for Iran, Nigeria's first opponent in group F, they also slumped four spots from 38th position to 42nd.
Six other teams have also managed to climb ten or more places: Vietnam (125th, up 18), Comoros (183rd, up 15), Iraq (103rd, up 11), Afghanistan (127th, up 11), Aruba (162nd, up 10) and the Faroe Islands (162nd, up 10).
Afghanistan are not only among the biggest climbers this month, but also together with Panama (29th, up 3) they are the only ones able to celebrate reaching their highest position since the launch of the ranking.
A look at the top 50 reveals that this month it is actually a ‘top 51’, as Slovakia (50th, up 4) and Cameroon (50th, down 4) are level on points.
Two additional teams from UEFA have made it into the top 50, bringing UEFA’s total to 28. This means that South America is down to eight top-50 teams, with Paraguay dropping out of the top 50 to 59th position (down 10). The number of top-50 teams from the other confederations is unchanged from last month (CAF with 8, CONCACAF with 5, AFC with 2 and OFC with 0).
Of the 67 matches taken into account, 57 were friendlies. The other ten games were AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, which brings the total number of matches evaluated so far this year to 122.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 10 April 2014.
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