Spanish media rave about Mikel Merino as his full stats emerge from win vs Croatia
Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino received high praise when he starred off the bench for Spain as they beat Croatia 4-1 on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old assisted Nico Williams' strike to cap off the scoring, after Lamine Yamal and Marc Pubill had put the world champions into a commanding lead.
The Arsenal man has established himself as a hero for his nation in recent years, scoring key winning goals on route to successful European Championship and World Cup campaigns.
For the Gunners, too, Merino is an important player and was strongly missed when he sat out almost the entirety of the second half of last season with a severe foot injury.
The former Real Sociedad man has returned in strong form and may well be asked to reprise his role as a makeshift striker over the coming weeks after Kai Havertz was injured with Germany.
Arsenal are waiting to hear about the severity of the striker's hamstring strain, with Merino ready to step in if necessary as he has done on several occasions.
Mikel Merino shines again vs Croatia
The direction Merino's career has gone in the past 18 months is very much beyond belief.
A reliable box-to-box midfielder for almost all of his career, the Spaniard was suddenly thrust into the centre of the Arsenal attack amid an injury crisis in the 2024-25 campaign.
He responded with a brace, and would end the season with nine goals and five assists across all competitions.
The time since has seen Merino score a hat-trick for Spain, net against Real Madrid, score in back-to-back games against Chelsea and become the unlikeliest of goal machines.
He was back in midfield for Luis de la Fuente's side on Tuesday against Croatia, but his technical quality was as evident as ever.
Merino completed all of his passes, two successful dribbles, was fouled and won four duels.
It was just 33 minutes on the pitch for the Spaniard, but he also managed to make a tackle and a recovery before assisting Williams.
Spain media rave about Merino
Merino seems to be ageing like fine wine, and could well perform for Arsenal and Spain for several years yet.
"Dynamic, always correct and offering alternatives, he assisted in the 4-1," Spanish outlet Muchodeporte wrote, rating him a six out of 10 for his display on Tuesday.
Zona Mixta gave the same rating and wrote: "He's the perfect replacement for this team and showed glimpses of his immense quality in midfield."
"Just like at Wembley, in his role as the glue that holds everything together," wrote AS.
"Since Lamine had already provided the key moments of the match, he, who knows a lot about that (Germany, Portugal, Belgium), decided to leave it for another day."