Mikel Merino scored twice after coming off the bench as Spain recovered from Ivan Perisic’s early goal to beat 10-man Croatia 2-1 and maintain their perfect record in Nations League Group A3.
The Arsenal midfielder equalised shortly after the hour before sealing victory with a left-footed finish in the 88th minute. The result sends Spain into the quarter-finals and extends their unbeaten run to 42 matches in all competitions, a sequence featuring 32 wins and 10 draws.
Croatia made the stronger start and should have taken the lead in the 13th minute, but Unai Simon produced an excellent point-blank save to keep out Josip Stanisic’s header.
The hosts did not have to wait long for their breakthrough. Igor Matanovic’s powerful effort was parried by Simon in the 17th minute, but Perisic reacted first to head in the rebound.
Croatia missed a chance to double their advantage six minutes later when Nikola Vlasic intercepted a loose pass from Simon and supplied Matanovic. The Spain goalkeeper recovered to make another important stop.
Spain struggled to create opportunities before the interval. Their first effort on target came just before half-time, when Dominik Livakovic comfortably held Mikel Oyarzabal’s header. Lamine Yamal then sent a low shot narrowly wide after being found by an outstanding pass from Pedri, while Dani Olmo fired over and Mateo Kovacic’s effort from a rebound was deflected wide.
Luis de la Fuente responded by replacing Alex Baena with Merino at the break. The change transformed Spain’s attacking threat, although Yamal appealed unsuccessfully for a penalty after going down inside the area.
In the 61st minute, Olmo threaded a clever pass through to Merino, who calmly placed his shot into the bottom-left corner to level the match. Spain then took control, with Yamal’s deflected attempt narrowly missing the far post.
Croatia were still capable of threatening, however. A poor pass from Martin Zubimendi gave Perisic an opening, but he shot straight at Simon.
Perisic, who had already been booked, was dismissed in the 79th minute for a second yellow card after tripping Marc Cucurella. The decision was upheld by VAR, leaving Croatia to defend the closing stages with 10 players.
Spain made the numerical advantage count when Merino controlled Zubimendi’s ball into the area and struck into the top-left corner.
Merino has now scored six goals in 16 appearances as a substitute for Spain since the start of 2025, more than any other player for a European national team during that period.
The victory came with one concern for De la Fuente: Spain have conceded in each of their past four official matches, allowing five goals in total. That is their longest such run since June 2025, when they conceded in six successive games.
Perisic had been involved in five goals in five matches against Spain, with two goals and three assists, the joint-highest total by any player against the nation over the past 20 years alongside Kylian Mbappe.
Croatia improved after their 7-0 defeat by England but lost despite edging the expected-goals figures, recording 1.17 from 10 shots compared with Spain’s 1.08 from the same number of attempts.
