The Black Stars are expected to improve their standings on the FIFA world-ranking table next week after their 3-1 win over Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The Black Stars beat the Saudi national team 3-1 in Jeddah in an international friendly.

The efforts of the Black Stars in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time have lifted the Ghana 11 places to 51st in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

And Ghana could now push on into the top 50 as they seek to maintain their momentum with a solid performance at the CAF African Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.

Ghana are unbeaten in 2005, having won four out of five FIFA World Cup qualifiers and drawn friendly matches against Kenya and Senegal.

Indeed, their last defeat came in June 2004 when they lost their opening group qualifier in Ouagadougou to Burkina Faso.

Since then, however, the Black Stars have now gone a total of 12 matches unbeaten.

Accordingly, they have climbed steadily from 89th place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking 18 months ago to a position just outside the top 50.

That 89th place is the lowest Ghana have ever been but there is still much to do before they can replicate their highest ranking to date of 15th in the world, which came after they reached the semi-finals of the 1996 African Nations Cup in South Africa.