During the break, Lionel Messi‘s Argentina closed out their fixtures with two strong wins — a narrow 1-0 victory over Venezuela and a dominant 6-0 rout of Puerto Rico — helping them move up in the standings. Cristiano Ronaldo‘s Portugal, meanwhile, edged past Ireland 1-0 before conceding a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw with Hungary, leaving their ranking unchanged.

Despite Argentina’s recent success in friendlies, their earlier loss to Ecuador in South American World Cup qualifying ultimately prevented them from overtaking Spain, who remain at the top of the FIFA ranking.

Despite France’s 2-2 draw against Iceland in the fourth round of UEFA qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, they earned a few extra points but failed to climb into second place, losing that spot to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

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