Lebanon have risen to 87th place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking

*Montenegrin coach Miodrag Radulovic has done immense work at the helm *

Lebanon recently qualified for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in their history

Since reaching the final round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, the Lebanese national side has gone from strength to strength.

Despite eventually failing to advance to Brazil 2014 and to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup (China PR claimed the spot allocated to the best third-placed team, narrowly pipping Lebanon to the post on goal difference), the Cedars continued to work hard on and off the pitch, bringing in respected Montenegrin coach Miodrag Radulovic, who has since exceeded all expectations.

After finishing behind Korea Republic in a challenging 2018 FIFA World Cup™ qualifying section that also contained Kuwait, Myanmar and Laos, Lebanon went into the qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup convinced they could finally make a significant breakthrough. In the end, this confidence was not misplaced, as they qualified for the continental competition via their performances on the pitch for the first time ever (they had previously qualified automatically as hosts in 2000).

Lebanon’s recent series of positive results has seen them shoot up to 87th spot in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, a 19-year high. They are also just two positions off their all-time peak of 85th, which they reached in 1998.

In an exclusive interview, Radulovic spoke to *FIFA.com *about this remarkable improvement. “It’s not by chance; it’s the result of a lengthy period of hard work,” he said. “After the Russia 2018 campaign, we completely revamped the squad, bringing in ten new players. We’ve been working our socks off during national training camps and in the run-up to friendly matches.”