Spain Routs Costa Rica in 2023 Women's World Cup Opener Behind 3 First-Half Goals

Spain kicked off the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in style with a dominant 3-0 win over Costa Rica in Group C.

Costa Rica's Valeria del Campo actually got the scoring started with an own goal in the 21st minute. Esther González was attempting a pass in front of the net to Athenea del Castillo, but del Campo cut in front and inadvertently put the ball in the goal.

That wound up opening the floodgates for the Spaniards. They added two more goals in the next six minutes from Aitana Bonmatí and Esther González to take a commanding 3-0 lead after 27 minutes of play.

Even though the scoring stopped after that point, Spain continued to exert its will against the overmatched Costa Rican squad. The Spanish team held possession for 80.1 percent of the match with 46 total shots, including 12 on target.

By comparison, Costa Rica didn't have a single shot on target and only 12 total in full time. Spain had more than three times as many passes in the win.

La Roja missed a couple of opportunities to add to the lead in the second half. Mariona Caldentey had a shot at the net, but she pushed the ball wide right and out of bounds.

While it was a rough game overall for Costa Rica, Daniela Solera did everything in her power to keep things close. The 26-year-old goalkeeper was under constant pressure from Spain's offensive attack and held her own. She stopped 10 shots, including a penalty kick by Jennifer Hermoso in the first half to keep the deficit at three goals.

In addition to the victory, Spain was also able to get Alexia Putellas in the game midway through the second half. The two-time Ballon d'Or winner is still working her way back into the swing of things as part of her recovery from a torn ACL suffered on July 5, 2022.

Putellas played six matches for Barcelona leading up to the World Cup. She was never on the pitch for more than 29 minutes in any of those games, but was able to play 61 minutes in Spain's 7-0 victory over Panama in a friendly on June 29.

Spain is coming off its best-ever finish at the World Cup four years ago. It made it to the Round of 16 before a 2-1 loss to the United States.

Next up for the Spanish team is a match with Zambia on July 26 at 3:30 a.m. ET. Costa Rica will square off against Japan on the same day at 1 a.m. ET.