Mikel Merino’s last-minute winners for Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup are just more proof of his remarkable ability to influence matches at crucial moments.
For most footballers, scoring a winning goal to send your country to the World Cup semi-finals would be a career highlight. Every player dreams of becoming a national hero, but few make it happen.
Mikel Merino, though? He’s used to big moments like these.
In the 86th minute, with Spain’s quarter-final against Belgium tied at 1-1, Luis de la Fuente turned to Merino to make something happen off the bench.
Just 115 seconds after entering the pitch, he scored the winning goal.
In the previous round, it took him a little longer – just over five minutes – to have the same impact. It was his effort in the 91st minute that eliminated Portugal.
Merino is the definition of clutch. At this tournament, he has become the first player in World Cup history to score the winning goal in two different knockout-stage matches as a substitute, and also the first Spanish player to score two winning goals after the 80th minute at the World Cup.
These two goals at the 2026 edition have come from just four shots, giving Merino an impressive conversion rate of 50%. He also averages a goal every 3.5 touches in the opposition’s box, the 11th-best rate of any player to have scored two or more goals.
Mikel Merino 2026 World Cup shot map - Opta
He has a history of scoring all-important, last-gasp goals for his country. Back at the 2024 European Championship, Merino’s 119th-minute winning header against Germany sent Spain to the semi-finals. They ended the tournament as champions.
He was at it again in the 2025 Nations League quarter-finals, scoring a stoppage-time equaliser just minutes after coming on to earn Spain a hard-fought 2-2 draw against the Netherlands.
Across major tournaments (World Cups and Euros), he has scored three goals as a substitute, level with Álvaro Morata – no Spain player has scored more.
It’s a manager’s dream to have somebody you can turn to when the game isn’t going to plan, somebody you can trust to make an impact. This is exactly why De la Fuente loves Merino.
Speaking after the Belgium match, he said: “Merino has many virtues, he could play in any national team and any club, and for us he is tailor-made for this team, for this model. We know that whenever we need him, he’s always there.”
“There was a moment in the match when we were thinking of bringing him on as a centre-forward. We saw that the game could go differently, and it worked out well.”
“It’s unfair that Mikel doesn’t play from the start, but it would also be unfair if someone else were left out.”
“Only 11 can play, and they understand that – the role they have to play at any given moment. When they take to the pitch, they know what they have to do; that’s why it’s a pleasure to be their manager.”
At this World Cup, Merino’s efficiency is up there with the very best players. He has scored 1.32 goals per 90, the fifth-highest rate of any player to have reached the quarter-finals; only Kylian Mbappé (1.39), Lionel Messi (1.36), Erling Haaland and Johan Manzambi (both 1.35) have scored more per 90. That’s not bad company to find yourself in.
2026 World Cup goals per 90 quarter-finalists - Opta
The midfielder-turned-striker doesn’t only thrive on the international stage, though, and Arsenal fans will already be well aware of his capabilities.
Since his Gunners debut in October 2024, Merino has scored 15 goals across all competitions, with four of these coming as a substitute (26.7%). Of players to have scored more than three goals in this period, only Ethan Nwaneri (37.5%) and Kai Havertz (29.4%) have scored a greater share of their goals from off the bench.
It’s not just meaningless goals that Merino is scoring, either. In fact, that couldn’t be further from reality.
Ten of Merino’s 11 Premier League goals have changed the match’s game state (e.g. taken Arsenal from losing to drawing, or drawing to winning). The only goal that didn’t was Arsenal’s second in a 2-0 win against Leicester City in February 2025. Super-sub Merino had already scored his side’s first.
Mikel Merino game-state changing goals Premier League - Opta
Mikel Arteta originally signed Merino as a ball-winning midfielder. In the 2023-24 season for Real Sociedad, he won the most duels of any player in Europe’s top five leagues (326), 40 more than second-ranked Bruno Guimarães (286).
In that same season before joining Arsenal, Merino won 278 aerial duels, the most of any midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues, and once again far more than second place (189 by Tomás Soucek).
It was in the aforementioned Leicester match that Arteta, having found himself in the middle of an unexpected striker crisis, first deployed Merino as an impromptu number nine, and the rest has been history.
In the UEFA Champions League, Merino has played up front seven times for Arsenal and scored four goals in those appearances, one of which was an excellent first-time finish in a memorable 3-0 beating of Real Madrid.
It is clear that, for all of the duel-winning qualities that make Merino a quality midfielder, his knack for scoring important, last-minute, result-changing goals means his role as a super-sub striker is too outstanding to overlook as a manager.
With Merino as an option off the bench for De la Fuente, Spain don’t always have to be playing at their best to get a result – and with a huge match against France for a spot in the final up next, that could be more important than ever for La Roja and their World Cup fate.
FIFA World Cup Stats Opta
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