ONTD FOOTBALL

England have climbed to third in the latest Fifa world rankings – their highest position, even though Roy Hodgson's side were knocked out of Euro 2012 at the quarter-final stage and have failed to reach the last four of a major competition since 1996.

England have moved above Uruguay in the standings, which are led by Spain with Germany in second place. The points that the South American side earned in winning the Copa América a year ago lost some of their value under the complicated system of co-efficients used to determine the rankings.

England were outclassed by Italy in their quarter-final in Kiev six weeks ago, yet are ranked three places higher than the finalists. Portugal, who reached the semis at Euro 2012, are also lower, as are Holland and Argentina. In a further quirk of the standings, Brazil are 13th – one position below Greece and three beneath Denmark.

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the top 20 teams in the world, according to fifa:

1 Spain
2 Germany
3 England
4 Uruguay
5 Portugal
6 Italy
7 Argentina
8 Netherlands
9 Croatia
10 Denmark
11 Russia
12 Greece
13 Brazil
14 France
15 Chile
16 Côte d'Ivoire
17 Sweden
18 Mexico
19 Czech Republic
20 Ecuador