Athletic Club women opened their Primera División campaign with a 3:1 victory over Levante Las Planas on Saturday, establishing themselves immediately as a side to watch. The match in Regular Season 1 delivered exactly what you expect from a new season opener: home advantage, early momentum, and a result that sets the tone for both clubs.
I. Uribe gave the hosts an early lead in the thirteenth minute, and by then you could already sense the shape of things. Levante responded through C. Pinedo just before the break, forty-one minutes in, but Athletic held their nerve. The visitors were forced to make changes at half-time, with V. Losada coming on for Levante, a tactical adjustment that didn't quite shift the momentum.
And here's the thing about second-half football — it's where matches get decided. A. Azkona restored the two-goal cushion in the seventy-second minute, and the game was effectively over. J. Amezaga added a fourth shortly after, seventy-seven minutes on, and Levante found themselves chasing shadows. The yellow cards told a different story: twelve bookings for Levante compared to five for Athletic, a reflection of frustration rather than discipline.
To be fair, the statistics would tell a more complicated tale if they existed, but what mattered was the quality of chances. Athletic created more clear-cut opportunities, and their finishing was clinical when it needed to be. Levante had periods of possession but lacked the penetration to trouble the home defence consistently.
The standings after one match put Athletic in second place with three points from a win, while Levante sit twelfth with none. It's a small sample size, naturally, but the pattern from their recent meetings suggests Athletic have the edge. They won 1:0 in May, and this performance reinforced that advantage.
What stuck with me was the efficiency. Three goals from limited chances, a clean defensive performance aside from the yellow cards. Levante will need to regroup quickly, and Athletic will be thinking about maintaining this level. The table is meaningless at this stage, but the result speaks for itself.