As the Portuguese national team earned qualification to the World Cup in South Africa after taking care of Bosnia Herzegovina in two playoff games, Real Madrid star defender Pepe (pictured) captured a spot in the FTBL World Top 23, our list of the world’s top 23 players.

Pepe earned a bonus of 9 rating points in the FTBL system for the 2 victories over Bosnia to boost his score to 111.18 points, and only a “clean” victory when the Merengues take on Racing de Santander in La Liga will ensure another bonus: his plank to beat in that game will amount to 14.60 rating points. He set the plank in Real’s 2:0 win over Getafe.

FC Porto defender Bruno Alves, the man who scored Portugal’s only goal in the first-leg game, also earned a solid 14 rating points in the return leg. In his next game he will face a lower plank of just 2.48 rating points to beat when Porto take on Chelsea in the Champions League in the coming days. However, Alves, who has a tally of 110.48 points at the moment, remains a few points shy of a spot in the World Top 23.