Egypt moved up to 62nd place in FIFA's monthly rankings for national teams in the wake of two consecutive victories last month. The Pharaohs registered back-to-back wins in Zimbabwe and Mozambique to book their place in Africa's final World Cup qualifying stage in June. Despite the progress, Egypt remain surpassed by 11 African nations as they face a very difficult challenge of moving into the top five ahead of the qualifying draw in September. The seven-time African champions, who already made to the final round, aim to make more progress in order to avoid a qualifying clash against Africa's top-five seeded nations. The final qualifying round will see the ten group leaders, based on their FIFA ranking, drawn into five home-and-away ties where winners qualify automatically advance to the 2014 World Cup. Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Algeria have secured their place in the final round so far. Meanwhile the top five African nations in FIFA's ranking are Ivory Coast (13), Ghana (24), Mali (28), Algeria (34), and Nigeria (35).
