On 21 December 1983, during a European Championship qualifying match against Malta that had to be won by 11 goals in order to qualify, Santillana scored a hat-trick in the first half and added a fourth in the second period, as the national side qualified at the expense of the Netherlands – incidentally, his former understudy at Real Madrid, Hipólito Rincón (now at Real Betis), also netted four times in a 12–1 victory.