Brentford striker Marcus Forss and on-loan midfield player Jaakko Oksanen have been named in the Finland Under-21 squad for two upcoming games. Finland have away games against Northern Ireland and Denmark as part of the qualification tournament for the 2021 European Under-21 Championships. Marcus is in the squad for both games while Jaakko will join up with them for the second match, in Denmark.
Finland already know they cannot reach the European Under-21 Championships. The tournament will be played in Hungary and Slovenia next year and will be split across March, for the group stage, and then May and June for the final stages. Finland only have seven points from seven games after losing to Romania and Ukraine last month and cannot finish in the top two to give themselves a chance to reach the tournament.
They can, however, build to the next tournament and give their players more international experience. That will start with a game in Northern Ireland next Friday, 9 October, before a trip to group leaders Denmark on Tuesday 13 October. Jaakko is on loan with AFC Wimbledon and is scheduled to spend the 2020/21 campaign with the Sky Bet League One side. He will stay with them and miss the first match.
Jaakko has been involved with the Finland international teams since he was 15 and has won caps at every level from Under-16 upwards. He has played eight times for the Under-21 side and first appeared at that level when aged 18. He has played 37 times for his country in total.
Marcus is back in the Finland squad for the first time in a year. He missed games last season due to injury and commitments on loan at Wimbledon but is now available for his national side. He has scored once in three Under-21 games and ten times in 19 international matches across the age groups. He has also scored twice for Brentford this season in Sky Bet Championship and Carabao Cup action.