Croatia 1-2 Spain: Merino inspires comeback as world champions seal Nations League quarter-final berth
Spain are through with two games to spare after super sub Merino's brace. The world champions were stunned in the 17th minute when a Croatia side humiliated 7-0 by England last time out took the lead in the 17th minute.
Ivan Perisic nodded home on the rebound after Igor Matanovic was denied by Unai Simon following excellent work from Mateo Kovacic. Matanovic spurned two chances to double the lead, finding Simon in fine form as Spain struggled to mount a response to Croatia's strong start.
But Merino was brought on in place of Alex Baena before the start of the second half, and the introduction of the Arsenal man proved an instrumental change by Luis de la Fuente. Merino restored parity just after the hour mark as he calmly slotted into the bottom-left corner from Dani Olmo's lay-off.
Simon then came to Spain's rescue again as he produced a fine save to deny Perisic a second after a dreadful error from Martin Zubimendi as he tried to play out from the back. And fortune continued to smile on La Roja as Croatia's goalscorer was given his marching orders 11 minutes from the end of normal time after receiving a second yellow card for stopping a Spain attack by clipping Marc Cucurella from behind.
Merino made sure Spain capitalised on their extra man, collecting Zubimendi's lofted pass on the turn with an exquisite piece of control before rifling an unstoppable strike beyond Dominik Livakovic. With four wins from four and a nine-point cushion over third-placed Croatia in Group 3, Spain are sure of a place in the last eight wth two games to spare.
Croatia Spain Home Away The UEFA Nations League Table League A - Group C # Team Played Won Drawn Lost GF GA GD Pts Last 3 1 Spain 3 3 0 0 10 4 6 9 W WW 2 England 3 2 0 1 11 3 8 6 W WW 3 Croatia 3 1 0 2 3 12 -9 3 L LL 4 Czechia 3 0 0 3 2 7 -5 0 L LL Position1, 2: Play Offs: Quarter-finals Position3, 4: Possible Play-off Upcoming fixtures for Croatia and Spain UEFA Nations League England ENG 19:452026-11-12 Croatia CRO UEFA Nations League Croatia CRO 19:452026-11-15 Czechia CZE UEFA Nations League Czechia CZE 19:452026-11-12 Spain ESP UEFA Nations League Spain ESP 19:452026-11-15 England ENG