Friday, November 28, 2014

FIFA Ranking: Greatest upsets (28 November 2014)

About three years ago, I've updated the greatest upsets list. Since then, I kind of forgot about them until the Faroe Islands pulled off a shocking win in Greece. A question in the Guardian prompted a deep dive in my database. I've sent them the results and John Ashdown suggested I should publish them here. Thanks for mentioning my blog, John!


The only result to come close to the Greece - Faroe Islands is a 1996 friendly between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy 2:1. The former Yugoslav country was 170, while Italy were 5th. Thus a gap of 165 spots. This is actually the only time they've played each other.

Now, taking into account only competitive matches.

Columns are pretty straightforward to understand.

This is the top 10, based on FIFA ranking differences.


2014-11-14 CQ Greece Faroe Islands 0:1 (0:0) 18 187 169
2010-10-10 CQ Niger Egypt 1:0 (1:0) 154 9 145
2010-10-10 CQ Central African Republic Algeria 2:0 (0:0) 172 35 137
2003-06-07 CQ Seychelles Zimbabwe 2:1 (0:0) 187 55 132
2003-11-14 WQ Mauritania Zimbabwe 2:1 (2:0) 176 48 128
1994-11-13 CQ Lesotho Cameroon 2:0 (0:0) 151 29 122
2014-09-09 CQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Cyprus 1:2 (1:1) 19 140 121
2007-03-24 CQ Kazakhstan Serbia 2:1 (0:0) 143 28 115
2011-11-15 WQ Lebanon Korea Republic 2:1 (2:1) 146 31 115
1997-08-20 WQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Denmark 3:0 (3:0) 117 3 114
 
Restricting the field to top 50 nations on the receiving end of the shock:


2014-11-14 CQ Greece Faroe Islands 0:1 (0:0) 18 187 169
2010-10-10 CQ Niger Egypt 1:0 (1:0) 154 9 145
2010-10-10 CQ Central African Republic Algeria 2:0 (0:0) 172 35 137
2003-11-14 WQ Mauritania Zimbabwe 2:1 (2:0) 176 48 128
1994-11-13 CQ Lesotho Cameroon 2:0 (0:0) 151 29 122
2014-09-09 CQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Cyprus 1:2 (1:1) 19 140 121
2007-03-24 CQ Kazakhstan Serbia 2:1 (0:0) 143 28 115
2011-11-15 WQ Lebanon Korea Republic 2:1 (2:1) 146 31 115
1997-08-20 WQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Denmark 3:0 (3:0) 117 3 114
2007-06-06 CQ Armenia Poland 1:0 (0:0) 128 18 110
 
Top 20:


2014-11-14 CQ Greece Faroe Islands 0:1 (0:0) 18 187 169
2010-10-10 CQ Niger Egypt 1:0 (1:0) 154 9 145
2014-09-09 CQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Cyprus 1:2 (1:1) 19 140 121
1997-08-20 WQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Denmark 3:0 (3:0) 117 3 114
2007-06-06 CQ Armenia Poland 1:0 (0:0) 128 18 110
2005-09-07 WQ Northern Ireland England 1:0 (0:0) 116 7 109
2011-11-15 WQ Korea DPR Japan 1:0 (0:0) 124 17 107
1995-06-07 CQ Belarus Netherlands 1:0 (1:0) 113 7 106
2011-09-02 CQ Wales Montenegro 2:1 (1:0) 117 19 98
1996-11-10 WQ Congo Zambia 1:0 (0:0) 110 16 94
 
Top 10:


2010-10-10 CQ Niger Egypt 1:0 (1:0) 154 9 145
1997-08-20 WQ Bosnia-Herzegovina Denmark 3:0 (3:0) 117 3 114
2005-09-07 WQ Northern Ireland England 1:0 (0:0) 116 7 109
1995-06-07 CQ Belarus Netherlands 1:0 (1:0) 113 7 106
1995-07-06 CF Mexico Paraguay 1:2 (1:0) 7 100 93
2007-11-21 CQ Belarus Netherlands 2:1 (0:0) 94 7 87
2001-11-07 WQ Bolivia Brazil 3:1 (1:1) 81 2 79
2000-02-20 CF Mexico Canada 1:2 a.e.t. (1:1, 1:0) 10 85 75
2010-06-22 WC France South Africa 1:2 (0:2) 9 83 74
2013-06-07 WQ Croatia Scotland 0:1 (0:1) 4 74 70

And the biggest shocks involving the top team in the FIFA ranking at the time of the match:


2014-10-11 CQ Poland Germany 2:0 (0:0) 70 1 69
2001-06-01 CC Australia France 1:0 (0:0) 68 1 67
2009-10-11 WQ Bolivia Brazil 2:1 (2:0) 59 1 58
2001-03-28 WQ Ecuador Brazil 1:0 (0:0) 53 1 52
2004-11-17 WQ Ecuador Brazil 1:0 (0:0) 44 1 43
2002-05-31 WC France Senegal 0:1 (0:1) 1 42 41
1995-07-23 CF Uruguay Brazil 1:1 (0:1) 5:3 PSO 36 1 35
1994-07-10 WC Bulgaria Germany 2:1 (0:0) 29 1 28
2004-07-14 CF Brazil Paraguay 1:2 (1:1) 1 29 28
1998-02-10 CF USA Brazil 1:0 (0:0) 26 1 25

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.

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