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FIFA Ranking: Argentina reached the top of the FIFA rankings for the first time in 6 years
World Cup winners Argentina on Thursday managed to reach the top of the FIFA world rankings for the first time in six years. Argentina won two friendlies last month to move past Brazil at the top. Brazil slipped to third place. France has climbed one place to reach the second place. Belgium is fourth as before while England is in fifth place. After this comes the number of Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain. At the same time, the Indian men’s football team has jumped five places to reach the 101st position. India was ranked 106 in the previous ranking. The Indian team is at the 19th position among 46 countries in Asia. India’s best FIFA ranking is 94, which it achieved in 1996.
Benzema hat-trick, Real Madrid beat Barcelona in Copa Cup final
With the help of another hat-trick from Barcelona Karim Benzema, Real Madrid entered the final of the Copa del Rey football tournament by defeating its arch-rivals Barcelona 4-0. It was the first time since a 5–1 win in 1963, when Real Madrid beat Barcelona by a four-goal margin at their home ground Camp Nou. Real Madrid thus won the semi-finals with a total margin of 4–1. Barcelona had won the first leg 1–0 and needed only a draw in the second leg to reach the final, but Barcelona could not win in front of Benzema’s brilliant play.
Ramkumar in last eight of ITF Futures tournament
Second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan along with four other Indian players advanced to the singles quarterfinals of the BR Adityan Memorial ITF Men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Thursday. Ramkumar defeated Grigory Lomakin of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinal match. He will take on compatriot Indian eighth seed Poonacha, who beat Karan Singh 6-3, 6-4, in the last eight. Among other Indian players, fourth seed Siddharth Rawat, seventh seed Manish Suresh Kumar and third seed Digvijay Singh also made it to the last eight.
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