Spain led Türkiye 6-0 away in this round of World Cup qualifiers, and Merino scored a hat-trick.
Statistics show that in the past 15 years, only two midfielders in Spain have been able to score Spain's goals in any event.
The other person was Isco, who also played for Real Madrid at the time, who scored a hat trick when he beat Argentina on March 6-1, 2018.