Seagulls flew over the Wellington Regional stadium as the city closed the day, perhaps some siren sound and noise from the sawmill next to the port, already on the shores of the Pacific. The uproar, however, would come shortly after, with the New Zealand fans overturned with the World Cup and, above all, with the recital of Spain, a team that knew how to spread its wings to fly even though it rained persistently, too fang for a Costa Rica that didn’t even see it coming.
3
Misa, Irene Paredes, Ivana Andrés, Ona Batlle, Olga Carmona, Teresa Abelleira, Athenea del Castillo, Salma Paralluelo, Jenni Hermoso, Aitana Bonmatí and Esther González
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![Costa Rica Women](https://as01.epimg.net/img/comunes/fotos/fichas/paises/84_56/crc.png)
Daniela Solera, Mariana Benavides, Valeria del Campo, Fabiola Villalobos, Gloriana Villalobos, María Elizondo, María Coto, Katherine Alvarado, Priscila Chinchilla, Mélissa Herrera and María Salas
goals 1-0 min. 20: Valeria del Campo (pp). 2-0 min. 22: Aitana Bonmati. 3-0 min. 27: Esther Gonzalez.
Referee Casey Rebelt
Although in the first two serves from the bottom the tics they tried to play the ball from the roots, they soon changed the plan, unable to shake off the harassing but balanced rival pressure. Thus, Costa Rica renounced the ball and the leadership from the beginning, always with a low block and the lines of the hand —four midfielders and five full backs—, corseted to the defense-attack transition as the only resource. It earned him, for example, a kick from the goalkeeper and a hairstyle from Salas for Chinchilla’s career, which did not honor the meaning of rodent because he got entangled in the auction when he only had Misa left to discount. But without a foot to launch the team, excellent in the withdrawal La Roja, the Costa Rican danger was extinguished, sanse finished what was given. Spain ball and good show.
Vilda soon understood that in the face of the motley rival defense, which took pains to cover the gaps in the interior corridors, she had to spread her wings, widen the field and take out crosses piecemeal. That was what Salma tried to start with on the left, the Usain Bolt of Spain with self-confidence and bankruptcy, poisoned centers that, for example, Aitana did not know how to hole out. But as the minutes passed, the team turned to the right, where Athenea and Ona, a long-beam winger, served as sprinklers in search of the final shot. Like that of Esther González with a heel that tickled the pole, but on the outside. There was more because Jenni Hermoso and Aitana, as the manual says guardiolista, they were not in the area, but they stepped on it by surprise, in the same way that even in set pieces the goal was chewed, because in a cross by Teresa Abelleira to the far post —play previously marked by raising both arms—, Salma returned the ball to the penalty spot so that Ivana demanded the best version of Solera, stupendous by putting the mitt on time. Was a attack and goal, an approaching football that anticipated the clear sensation that the celebration was a matter of time. And it didn’t take long.
A different footballer because she thinks faster than the others and because class falls out of her pockets, Aitana scored a spur after a filtered pass through the inside lane that served for Esther González —scandalously unchecking hers— to cross low and into the six-yard box, where Del Campo got entangled in the clearance to score an own goal. Moment in which the tension gave way to football, because almost immediately afterwards, a play on the right by Athenea, who traced a slalom to the area, ended with a cross from Ona to Aitana, who invented a breathtaking dribble, heel shot from behind, to hit the net with her bad leg, her left foot. The siege was endless the show must go on, and a new cross from the right, in this case from Tere, was attacked by Jenni from the far post with the misfortune that the crossbar spat out the shot. Although Esther, a battering ram of race and nose, absorbed the rejection and celebrated her goal. They could have been more because Solera made a save for the video library after his header to Ona’s center.
Olga Carmona wanted to join the party with an incursion down the left that Villalobos could only stop with a penalty, missed on this occasion by Jenni, a shot that was too lukewarm and focused. She angrily denied the 10, but there wasn’t even time for that, perhaps comforted by a half-turned spout that uncorked the oh! widespread. It didn’t matter that the duel was seen for sentencing, because Salma continued with her slaloms while Esther threw the lasso to as many balls fell into the area. Spain’s appetite was endless and Vilda took it upon herself to feed it with the wheel of change.
![Aitana Bonmatí drives the ball before the Costa Rican Alexandra Pinell.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/xvEd5mkbsiZ23CpT26guXk8frcw=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/4PVLJFFHQ6HNEDQBGVHBYVBZO4.jpg)
Alba Redondo and Mariona Caldentey high-fived with Esther and Athenea, more wood for the offensives that, by millimeters, did not end in the nets. Like that shot from Olga that only dared to repel the crossbar or that other one from Salma that chipped off the post. It was a bargain match, the ideal setting for Alexia to come out in the last quarter of an hour, so that she could gain color and shape for what is to come for the national team. And well that she had the opportunity of her, blurred by Solera. It did not matter because Spain, in its World Cup debut, took flight.
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