Spanish veteran Irene Paredes missed out on her 100th international cap on Tuesday because of a bizarre computer glitch, Spain coach Montse Tome has explained.
The 32-year-old defender was set to celebrate the impressive milestone during Spain’s Nations League clash with Switzerland on Tuesday, but she was surprisingly left out of Tome’s matchday squad.
The reigning World Cup champions, who still dominated the group stage match in her absence, triumphed 7-1 against the Swiss and ran riot with five goals in the second half.
Tome revealed after the match that Paredes was excluded through no fault of her own, and that a computer error had instead denied the defender her 100th appearance.
‘There was some kind of computer problem, I was told about it at the hotel,’ she said. ‘I had to adapt to the situation and I went with the starting XI that you saw.’
Irene Paredes (above) was denied her 100th international cap due to a bizarre computer glitch
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The defender was not part of Spain’s matchday squad in Tuesday’s 7-1 win over Switzerland
Although Tome refused to elaborate on the bizarre selection hiccup, reports in Spain have claimed that the Spanish football federation were not able to update the squad in UEFA’s official system.
As Paredes had not featured in Spain’s matchday squad against Italy last Friday because of injury, the centre-back was not registered and had to sit out against Switzerland as a result.
Instead, Spanish forward Amaiur Sarriegi was mistakenly registered to UEFA as part of the application despite being removed from Tome’s matchday squad and unable to play because of a training injury.
Provided computer glitches don’t continue to hamper her career, Paredes will soon become the third Spain women’s star to reach 100 international caps after Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso.
Spain coach Montse Tome revealed her exclusion was due to ‘some kind of computer problem’
She will eventually join Alexia Putellas (left) and Jennifer Hermoso (centre) in making 100 caps