The feelgood factor associated with the new international management team of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane hasn’t transferred to the Fifa world rankings, with the Republic of Ireland falling seven places to 67th .

O’Neill and Keane enjoyed an unbeaten start to their tenure in charge, beating Latvia 3-0 at the Aviva Stadium ahead of a 0-0 draw with Poland in Poznan.

The situation at the top of the rankings remains unchanged, with Spain leading the way ahead of Germany, Argentina and Colombia.

Thanks to their two wins over Sweden in the European play-offs, Portugal have managed to secure fifth position and have climbed back into the top 10 along with World Cup hosts Brazil, who won their friendly matches against Honduras and Chile and are currently sitting 10th.

Belgium (11th, down 6) and England (13th, down 3), however, have had mixed fortunes, with both teams remaining unbeaten in the World Cup qualifiers but then losing two friendlies on home ground.

All teams in the top 20, except for Ukraine (18th, up 2), have booked their tickets to Brazil next year and just three teams outside of the top 50 have managed to qualify for the 2014 showpiece, namely Cameroon (51st, up 8), South Korea (54th, up 2) and Australia (59th, down 2).