Mikel Merino Is Spain’s Much-Needed Closer

For all of its defensive solidity and possession dominance, Spain has been missing a finishing touch in this World Cup. It hurt the Spaniards in the opening match, the stunning draw to Cape Verde. It made them struggle against Uruguay in an ugly game on the final day of the group stage. The 3-0 romp against over-matched Austria felt like a turning point, but then the dreadful viewing on display in the team’s 1-0 victory in the round of 16 over Portugal felt like a regression to the mean.

Friday’s quarterfinal against a hobbled Belgium was more of the same: A lot of possession, some decent chances, and little to show for it. Then, just as he did in the dying embers of the Portugal match, Mikel Merino showed up and scored Spain into the next round. Not bad for a player who was, for most of his career, nominally a defensive midfielder.

I say nominally because Merino, currently at the age of 30 but really for the last few years, has become something of an anomaly in the soccer world. When playing for Arsenal, he is still a central midfielder with defensive responsibilities, but not always; ever since Arsenal’s striker injury crisis of 2025, Merino has been on occasion deployed as a striker, his 6-foot-2 frame serving as a solid base for the club to work around.

His evolution—from more of a hybrid Spanish-style No. 6 and No. 8 into an emergency striker—has carried over to the national team. On a side with so much talent at hand, Merino does not have a regular spot on the lineup or even off the bench, but Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has come to the same conclusion that Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta did: When in need of goals, you can do a lot worse than Merino up front.

So with Spain scoring first on Friday via Fabián Ruiz in the 30th minute and, finally, conceding its first goal of the tournament in the 41st through a Charles De Ketelaere header—somewhere, Tim Ream sighed audibly— Spain was in dire need of some inspiration or, really, some end product.

De la Fuente’s first plan was to bring in Nico Williams, the left winger dynamo who has been hobbled with various muscle injuries this tournament, on the opposite wing of Lamine Yamal. With Lamine facing constant double- and triple-teams, de la Fuente had to try something on the opposite end to force Belgium to care about both sides in attack.

But Williams clearly and visibly was not fully fit. Seven minutes after that gambit, de la Fuente went to what is quickly becoming his tried-and-true method: In the 86th minute, he took off Dani Olmo and threw on Merino, seemingly with the instruction to just run up there and find a goal.

It worked! Again! It took Merino just two minutes to get on the end of a howler from Belgian substitute keeper Senne Lammens. Starter Thibaut Courtois was fantastic until he pulled up with a thigh injury shortly after the hour mark; he tried to give it a go for a few minutes but was subbed off in tears in the 71st minute. The cameras caught him in a moment of exasperation after Merino’s goal, which put Spain into the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time since winning the whole thing in 2010.

There was nothing fancy about Merino’s goal here, just as there was nothing fancy about his winner against Portugal. There, Merino read that Portugal center back Rúben Dias had stepped up to close down Ferran Torres, a nominal (there’s that word again) striker who has played more of a whirlwind attacking role in this tournament. Merino snuck into the space left behind, and Torres found him with a perfectly weighted pass. Merino slammed it home near post.

These are not midfielder goals, even if they aren’t the type that a star striker scores. These are goals that were created by Merino’s anticipation and nose for the ball, a skill that has served him well when Spain has needed him. Thanks to his two goals this tournament, he is now the only man to ever score the go-ahead goal in two different knockout matches as a substitute at the same tournament. What’s more, his other goal for Spain at a major tournament was more of the same: In the 2024 Euros, Merino scored a 119th-minute winner against Germany in the quarterfinals; Spain would go on to win that tournament.

Is this a reliable tactic? Common sense would say no. After all, can you really rely on a midfielder to sub on, take over the center forward spot, and score every time you need a late winner? No! But also, maybe?

Merino isn’t doing this by accident. Spain has been stellar in every which way but goalscoring—though its 11 goals rank in a tie for sixth place, three of those came in the Austria match, plus four more in a romp over Saudi Arabia—and France looms next. So it might be up to Spain’s defense to set the table for more Merino heroics late on. Given his track record in this World Cup and beyond, Merino might just be up for it, so long as his teammates give him a chance to be the hero once again.