Ireland set for more giant strides up the Fifa world rankings after play-off triumph

It's been four years since Ireland found themselves in the top 40 of footballing nations according to Fifa.

But those dark days are over as Super Johnny Walters has fired us into an expected jump of 11 places when the Fifa world rankings are updated next month. The most recent update saw us jump from 54th spot to 42nd, where we currently reside, but after overcoming Edin Dzeko, Miralem Pjanic and fog, we're expected to move 11 places up to 31st spot according to the number-crunchers over at ESPNFC. Martin O'Neill took over when we were languishing in 67th place back in 2013 so it's safe to say that he's literally made us at least twice as good... The numbers don't lie. We're still quite a way off our all-time high of 6th place which was recorded in 1993 but that will all be taken care of when we win the Euros. NEW FIFA RANKING TOP 20 1 - Belgium 2 - Argentina 3 - Spain 4 - Germany 5 - Chile 6 - Brazil 7 - Portugal 8 - Colombia 9 - England 10 - Austria 11 - Uruguay 12 - Switzerland 13 - Ecuador 14 - Netherlands 15 - Italy 16 - Romania 17 - Wales 18 - Croatia 19 - Ivory Coast 20 - Hungary 31 - Republic of Ireland