The big news: Indian team jumps 11 places in rankings

The Indian men's football team jumped 11 places in the Fifa world rankings to move up to 137th spot, according to a release from the All India Football Federation on Thursday. “It’s been a total team effort," said coach Stephen Constantine. "Unless Mr Patel [AIFF President Praful Patel) and Mr Das [AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das] allowed me to do the things and the manner I wanted it to be done, this won’t have been possible ever.”

However, Constantine stressed that this was the beginning of a long-term plan and the team is capable of achieving much more. Recently in September, India defeated a much-higher ranked Puerto Rico 4-1 in a friendly in Mumbai. Their previous best ranking in the last six years was 138th in August 2010.

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  2. Inter Milan beat Southampton 1-0 in their Europa league encounter on Friday. Southampton deserved to win but were undone by a fine strike from Antonio Candreva to end up losing the encounter at the San Siro. Milan were performing in patches and never really looked to put any sort of pressure on the English side.
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  5. Chennaiyin FC recorded back-to-back victories in the current season of the Indian Super League after beating NorthEast United 1-0 on Thursday in Guwahati. Davide Succi scored a brilliant volley to hand his team three points in a game that saw both sides give it their all. However, NorthEast are still on top of the table with 10 points, with Chennai coming in at third with seven points.
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