Reigning champions Argentina reached a second straight World Cup final by beating arch-rivals England, and Lionel Scaloni’s side also reclaimed top spot in the FIFA rankings with the nervy semi-final win. Argentina had been number one with 1874.81 points when the World Cup began, but the ranking published on 2 July put France on top, with Didier Deschamps’s side on 1916.24 points; France had been third before the tournament, with 1869.43. France held top spot until the semi-finals, but their position weakened after a 2-0 loss to Spain in the last four. Argentina seized the chance, returning to the top with the semi-final win over England, gaining 26.90 points to reach 1970.37 in all. Spain, meanwhile, added 30.82 points by beating France, rising to second with 1965.61; Spain had been second before the World Cup with 1873.01, before France’s rise pushed Argentina to second and Spain to third. Now the situation has changed again, with Argentina top and Spain second.
But with the top ranking comes an old statistic that haunts Argentina: since the FIFA rankings began in 1992, no team ranked top during or at the end of a tournament has won that World Cup. Germany were number one before the 1994 World Cup but went out in the quarter-finals. In 1998 top-ranked Brazil reached the final but lost 3-0 to hosts France. In 2002 top-ranked France went out in the group stage. In 2006 number-one Brazil’s run ended in the quarter-finals. The same happened in 2010 and 2014, with Brazil and Spain respectively taking part as the top-ranked team but failing to win. In 2018 number-one Germany crashed out in the group stage, and at the 2022 Qatar World Cup top-ranked Brazil lost to Croatia in the quarter-finals — with Argentina ultimately champions. This time too, Argentina have risen to the top before the final. So the question is: will that long-running “curse” of the top-ranked team not winning hold again, or will the Albiceleste change history and win back-to-back titles?
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