Vietnam women climb two places in world football rankings

They rank sixth in Asia behind Australia (7th), Japan (10th), North Korea (11st), China (15th), and South Korea (20th).

The Vietnamese women's football team is currently the strongest in Southeast Asia after a hard fought win against Thailand saw them defend their gold medal at the recent SEA Games held in the Philippines.

Last August, they also became the AFF champions by defeating Thailand to end the latter’s three-year reign as champions.

The highest position that Vietnam's women football team have ever achieved in FIFA rankings is 28, six years ago. This is the first time the Vietnamese women wrapped up the year as No.1 in Southeast Asia after three consecutive years of standing second behind Thailand.

Thailand are now 38th in the world and seventh in Asia.

The U.S., Germany and Netherlands respectively remain the top three while the bottom three are Aruba, Madagascar and Mauritius.