Argentina have risen to fourth in the FIFA world ranking, leapfrogging Brazil to become South America’s top side.

Sergio Batista’s side, who failed to progress further than the quarter-finals at the 2010 World Cup, have been rewarded for a 2-1 friendly victory over Portugal and reach their highest position since topping the rankings in June 2008, while Brazil lost 1-0 to France in their most recent effort to drop into fifth place – their lowest ranking in two years.

The only other change in the top ten sees Croatia move past Portugal to eighth, as Spain continue their reign in the No. 1 spot.

In Africa, Zambia return to the top 100, thanks to a 4-0 win over Swaziland, and Niger drop out to 104th. Ghana remain the top performing team in 16th, and World Cup hosts South Africa have reached their best position since 2005 in 46th.

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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini believes the Europa League is now ”a great competition” as his side prepare to face Dynamo Kiev in the first leg of the last-16.

Mancini feels his team will have to be at their best if they are to win the trophy and end a 35-year trophy drought, especially in Kiev where Dynamo have not lost in six UEFA home matches since a 2-1 Champions League group stage defeat by Barcelona in December 2009.

”The Europa League is a great competition,” he said. ”There are big teams in it. You can get to the quarter-finals and meet an important team.

”There are a lot of well-known sides in the competition. All the teams we can play usually play in the Champions League. It is a little Champions League. All the teams are big ones.”

Mancini would love two trophies as well as a place in the Champions League next season – as his side face Reading in their next game in the FA Cup on Sunday – but knows it will be tough.

He said: ”We will try to reach the final if it is possible, both in the Europa League and the FA Cup. It depends on our players recovering their strength.”

Spanish forward David Silva is only too aware of the difficulty facing City at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium. He played and scored there in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup but Valencia went out on the away goals rule.

Silva recalled: ”It’s a difficult place to go to. We got a 1-1 draw so we didn’t do too badly. They’re a difficult team and at their stadium it’s very tough but we’re excited about our chances of going through.”

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Xavi has offered an uncompromising appraisal of Arsenal’s performance in their 3-1 defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday night, saying he was disappointed by the lack of intent shown by the Gunners.

Arsenal failed to muster a single shot at Camp Nou as they were eliminated 4-3 on aggregate, the first time a team has failed to do so since Opta’s Champions League records began in 2003.

While their goal came from a Sergio Busquets own goal, Lionel Messi scored twice – once with an exquisite chip and volley and once from the penalty spot – with Xavi himself also on target as Barcelona progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger felt aggrieved at a second yellow card shown to Robin van Persie when he was adjudged to have kicked the ball away after referee Massimo Busacca whistled for offside, but Xavi felt the decision to dismiss the Dutchman was the correct one.

Barca’s captain for the night was also surprised by the overly-cautious approach of an Arsenal side that won the first leg 2-1 thanks to some expert counter-attacking.

“This is a fair result,” Xavi told the Barcelona official website. “We were the superior team both in the away game and at home. There’s justice in football. They had clearly come here to defend. They didn’t even have one single shot on goal. I expected a lot more from them to be honest.

“[Javier] Mascherano and [Sergio] Busquets are simply amazing for the team, while Leo [Messi] once again stepped up to make the difference. The only thing that could have been better was our finishing. We should have scored more and we suffered too much. We could have killed the game a lot sooner.

“Arsenal really didn’t want to play football. All they cared about was defending. The red card did affect the game, but the decision was right in my opinion.”

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Steven Gerrard has not travelled for the first leg of Liverpool’s Europa League last-16 tie against Braga in Portugal due a groin problem.

The Liverpool captain has been struggling with the niggle over the past few days and has been afforded a period of rest by his manager, rather than taking part in the European encounter on Thursday.

Gerrard has played only 45 minutes of the competition this season, coming off the bench in the home game against Napoli to score a brilliant hat-trick.

Though Gerrard will be absent in Portugal, along with the injured Fabio Aurelio, Martin Kelly and Daniel Agger, record signing Andrew Carroll is expected to make his European debut for the club.

Club doctor Peter Brukner says the £35 million striker will continue his recovery from a groin problem, having appeared as a substitute in the win over United.

“It’s been a long process rehabilitating him – about eight or nine weeks – but we are happy with the result,” Brukner said. “We’ve seen steady improvement over that time; he’s much stronger in that tendon and in general as well.

“We still need to keep working with him and we want to build his training and playing load up to the level required. He’ll play some more minutes against Braga and hopefully he’ll be involved more and more with each game. Overall, we are really happy with his progress.”

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Arsene Wenger and Samir Nasri have been charged by UEFA over their comments to Swiss referee Massimo Busacca following Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona.

Both men have been charged with improper conduct for “inappropriate language” directed at the match official in the aftermath of a 3-1 defeat at Camp Nou, according to UEFA. The disciplinary case will be heard on March 17.

Arsenal were infuriated by Busacca’s decision to show a second yellow card to striker Robin van Persie in the second half of the Champions League last-16, second-leg tie.

Having already been booked for pushing Barca defender Dani Alves in the face, Van Persie was adjudged to have kicked the ball away in the second half, despite only a second elapsing between the whistle being blown and Van Persie taking a shot at goal.

Van Persie desperately argued that he had not heard the whistle when playing in front of a crowd in excess of 95,000, but Busacca reduced Arsenal to ten men with 56 minutes gone.

After two goals from Lionel Messi and a strike from Xavi condemned Arsenal to an early exit from the competition, Wenger was involved in a heated confrontation with Busacca. Both he and midfielder Nasri have now been charged by European football’s governing body.

However, there is no indication that Van Persie himself has been charged, despite calling Busacca a “joke” in a post-match interview.

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