FIFA Ranking: Greatest upsets

Chris Wathan asked me how big of an upset a Wales victory against England would be based on FIFA rankings. I thought this would also make an interesting post.

So here's the top 20 upsets with two restrictions:

• only competitive matches
• losing team must be in the top 20 of the FIFA ranking at the time of the match

Of course, this list only includes matches played after 8 August 1993 - the first edition of the FIFA ranking.

Date - Match type - Team 1 - Team 2 - Result - Rank 1 - Rank 2 - Rank difference

10-Oct-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
20-Aug-97	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114
06-Jun-07	CQ	Armenia	Poland	1:0 (0:0)	128	18	110
07-Sep-05	WQ	Northern Ireland	England	1:0 (0:0)	116	7	109
07-Jun-95	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	1:0 (1:0)	113	7	106
02-Sep-11	CQ	Wales	Montenegro	2:1 (1:0)	117	19	98
10-Nov-96	WQ	Congo	Zambia	1:0 (0:0)	110	16	94
06-Jul-95	CF	Mexico	Paraguay	1:2 (1:0)	7	100	93
06-Sep-08	WQ	Austria	France	3:1 (2:0)	101	11	90
17-Oct-07	CQ	Georgia	Scotland	2:0 (1:0)	104	14	90
08-Oct-10	CQ	Armenia	Slovakia	3:1 (1:1)	105	16	89
09-Sep-07	CQ	Equatorial Guinea	Cameroon	1:0 (1:0)	105	16	89
10-Oct-98	CQ	Denmark	Wales	1:2 (0:0)	18	107	89
21-Nov-07	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	2:1 (0:0)	94	7	87
11-Oct-95	CQ	Georgia	Bulgaria	2:1 (1:0)	100	14	86
28-Mar-01	WQ	Belarus	Norway	2:1 (1:0)	99	14	85
06-Sep-98	CQ	Norway	Latvia	1:3 (1:1)	11	94	83
04-Sep-04	WQ	Albania	Greece	2:1 (2:1)	94	14	80
07-Nov-01	WQ	Bolivia	Brazil	3:1 (1:1)	81	2	79
01-Jun-96	WQ	Sudan	Zambia	2:0 (1:0)	94	15	79

CQ = Continental Qualifier
WQ = World Cup Qualifier
CF = Continental Final

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.