The Philippines continues to reap the benefits of its 2012 AFC Challenge Cup campaign.

Thanks to their 3rd place finish in Kathmandu, the country achieved their highest-ever ranking at 148th overall with the release of the April edition of the FIFA / Coca-Cola rankings on Wednesday. As predicted upon by Ranking predictor Football-Ranking.info last week, the computations resulted in the Philippines with 182 points, a 46-point bump that moved them up eight slots from its previous ranking of 156. They are nine points behind St. Vincent and The Grenadines and eighteen points ahead of Challenge Cup hosts Nepal.

In addition, the ranking of 148 puts them as the 22nd highest Asian team and 3rd highest ASEAN team. Only the Vietnamese at 97 and the Thais at 141 are better than us.

AFC Challenge Cup champions North Korea moves up 25 spots to 86th overall and tenth in Asia, while losing finalist Turkmenistan are at 142nd overall, moving up 24 spots. The competition comprised 3/4 of the international matches that took place during the April time period.

Spain remains the highest ranked team in the world, followed by Germany and Uruguay. The Netherlands drops down to fourth while Portugal completes the Top 5. The top teams from the other confederations are Côte d'Ivoire (CAF) at 15, Mexico at 20, New Zealand at 130 and Australia at 21.

The next results will be available on May 9.