Finland women's manager Outi Saarinen has apologised for mistakenly naming a 51-year-old in her squad for Tuesday's game against Serbia. The match was fairly uneventful and ended in a 1-1 draw, with Nea Lethola opening the scoring for Finland in the second half. A late own goal from Maaria Roth gave Serbia a route back into the contest, but neither side managed to find an elusive winner.

A bizarre mistake grabbed the headlines after the final whistle, with Saarinen the party at fault. When naming the line-up, she mistakenly selected the long-retired Stina Ruuskanen. She was intending to pick Nanne Ruuskanen, who ended up missing the match as a result of the unusual error.

It was not spotted until after the team sheet deadline had passed, meaning the younger Ruuskanen was unable to play. Saarinen later apologised for the mix-up and gave credit to the defender for taking it in her stride.

In a statement from the Finnish Football Association, she said: "Nanne was, of course, disappointed but took the news very well considering the circumstances. I am very sorry for the mistake."

The older Ruuskanen, who is not related to her younger namesake, was left amused and joked that she would be ready to represent her country at a moment's notice.

She told Finnish media: "I'm definitely ready if the call comes. Just yesterday I was playing in a hobby league match, so my game feel is good.

"In the old days, at the age of 51, still in the national team. This is fun for me. I already asked if I could go sit on the bench now, but I think I'll go to the stands."

Saarinen, meanwhile, is not the only manager to have been involved in a humiliating mix-up with names. Back in 2014, former England boss Fabio Capello accidentally called the wrong player into his Russia squad for a friendly against Armenia.

In an embarrassing turn of events, he named Lokomotiv Moscow reserve Andrey Semenov on the 23-strong list when he intended to select the Terek Grozny defender of the same name.

Lokomotiv even published an article on their website to announce the good news, but it was quickly deleted when the Russian Football Federation corrected the squad list and apologised for the error.

Reacting to his unexpected call-up, the lesser-known Semenov said: "I was surprised, to say the least. Well, I have one year's experience playing for Russia's youth team."