When Luis de la Fuente needs a goal in the biggest moments of this World Cup, he no longer turns to a forward. He turns to a midfielder. Mikel Merino has become the most feared late option at the 2026 tournament, and Arsenal supporters already knew exactly why.
There are players who spend a whole career chasing one iconic moment. Merino has started collecting them like a hobby. At the 2026 World Cup he has walked onto the pitch twice in the closing minutes of a knockout tie, and twice he has walked off as the man who sent Spain through. First it was Portugal in the round of 16. Then it was Belgium in the quarterfinal. Same script, same hero, same disbelief on his own face afterward.
The 88th and 91st minute man
Against Portugal, de la Fuente sent Merino on in the 85th minute of a tense last 16 clash. Six minutes later the game was over. He netted a 91st-minute winner against Portugal in the round of 16 after coming on in the 85th minute. Four days later the plot repeated itself in Los Angeles. Merino came on in the 86th minute against Belgium and took just two minutes to fire home the decisive goal after substitute goalkeeper Senne Lammens had parried Pau Cubarsí’s drive, and Spain won 2-1 to reach the semifinals. ESPNESPN
That second strike carried real historical weight. At this tournament he became the first player in World Cup history to score the winning goal in two different knockout-stage matches as a substitute. For a competition that has run since 1930, being the first to do anything is rare air. The Analyst
- 2 goals off the bench in the 2026 World Cup knockout rounds, both of them match winners
A finish that was years in the making
None of this is a fluke, and that is the important part. Merino has a long track record of arriving at the perfect second. Spain fans still remember Euro 2024, when he came off the bench and headed home the 119th-minute winner against host Germany in the quarterfinal, a goal he celebrated by copying a move his own father once performed in the same Stuttgart stadium. The 2026 World Cup version of Merino is simply the same instinct, sharpened.
He also arrived in North America in scorching form. Merino scored six goals in Spain’s last four World Cup qualifiers, including a hat trick in a 6-0 demolition of Turkey. By the end of 2025 he had become one of La Roja’s most reliable scorers from an area of the field where midfielders are not supposed to live. bbci
- 6 goals in 4 World Cup qualifiers for Spain
The Arsenal blueprint
Here is where the story loops back to north London, because Spain did not invent this Merino. Arsenal did. When the Gunners signed him from Real Sociedad in August 2024 for a fee that could rise to £32.6m, he arrived as a left-footed box to box midfielder with more than 200 La Liga appearances and a Euros medal. Nobody was thinking about him as a striker.
Then injuries changed everything. In February 2025, with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus sidelined, Mikel Arteta made a bold call and threw Merino on as an emergency forward against Leicester City. He admitted he was surprised to come on as a striker having never played the position before, yet he scored twice in a 2-0 win. Arteta’s explanation when asked what he told Merino before sending him on was blunt and now slightly legendary: that he was going to score. ESPN
The experiment did not stop there. Deep into the 2025/26 season, with Arsenal again missing forwards, Merino kept filling in and kept delivering, scoring against Chelsea and grabbing a goal and an assist against Brentford. In one stretch he became Arsenal’s joint-top scorer in the Premier League for the 2025 calendar year with eight goals, five of them headers, a tally that put him level for the most headed goals in the competition that year. It also helped the Gunners on their way to the 2025/26 Premier League title. bbci
From false nine to genuine threat
What makes Merino so useful is that he is not just a poacher in disguise. When Arsenal used him up front, analysts described textbook false nine work, with Merino dropping deep, dragging a center back out of position, and opening space for Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka to attack. He can be the finisher one moment and the creator the next, which is a nightmare for defenders trying to decide whether to follow him or hold their line.
That dual identity is exactly what Spain now weaponize off the bench. Tired defenses in the final 10 minutes are asked to track a fresh runner who reads crosses like a striker but moves like a midfielder. He knows when to gamble on a rebound, as Belgium’s backup keeper discovered, and he knows how to time a run into the box that nobody picks up.
Why the super sub role suits him perfectly
There is a quiet genius to how de la Fuente is using him. Spain do not need Merino to press for 90 minutes or dictate tempo. They need him to change a stalemate. By holding him back, the coach keeps a proven finisher in reserve for the precise phase of the game when Spain go direct and start hunting for a late goal. It is a role built around one of his sharpest skills rather than his overall game, and the results speak loudly.
It is worth noting that Spain did not need his heroics in the semifinal. Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro gave Spain a 2-0 win over France in Arlington, sending La Roja into the World Cup final, with Merino starting rather than rescuing this time. But knowing he is sitting there, ready to be unleashed, is a comfort every deep-running team dreams of. ESPN
- Spain’s first World Cup final appearance since their 2010 triumph
For a player once seen purely as a defensive-minded number eight, Merino has rewritten his own scouting report in the space of two seasons. Club and country have both found the same answer to the same question. When the clock is running down and a goal simply has to come, give the ball to the midfielder who thinks like a striker.