Levante stuns ten-man Athletic 3-1 after Laporte sees red

In barely two minutes, Levante flipped the script at the Ciutat de Valencia. Roger Brugue scored twice between the 19th and 21st minutes, Athletic Club never quite recovered, and the LaLiga match finished 3-1 for the home side, who also played nearly twenty minutes with a man advantage after Aymeric Laporte was sent off.

The early script looked nothing like that. Athletic came out dominating possession, created several early chances through Hugo Rincon and Alex Berenguer, and even had a Berenguer strike that grazed the crossbar in the 8th minute. But Levante waited for its moment and made the most of it: in the 19th minute, Brugue finished with his left foot from the center of the box, low into the corner, after a pass from Dani Requena. Two minutes later, Brugue struck again, this time with his right foot, to make it 2-0 and leave the Basque side completely rattled before the half-hour mark.

The first half ended 2-0, with Athletic unable to pull one back despite pressing on the flanks through Yuri Berchiche and Robert Navarro. In the second half, the Basque side shuffled its lineup (Iñaki Williams and Peio Canales came on from the start of the half) and began to cause more trouble in the opposing box.

The penalty, the red card and Athletic's response

The match shifted gears past the 60th minute. Jon Ander Olasagasti fouled Maroan Sannadi inside the box, and after a VAR review in the 61st minute, the penalty was confirmed for Athletic Club. Alex Berenguer made no mistake from the spot in the 66th minute to make it 2-1, breathing life into the Basque side. The hope was short lived: in the 72nd minute, Aymeric Laporte was shown a straight red card, and Athletic had to see out the rest of the match a man down.

With the extra man, Levante managed the result comfortably until stoppage time. In the 97th minute, with the match stretched by a lengthy added-time period, Karl Etta Eyong, who had come on in the second half, tapped in from close range to seal it at 3-1, a goal that needed a VAR check before it was confirmed.

What the numbers say

Possession clearly belonged to the visitors, but the scoreline told a different story. Athletic Club controlled 61.9% of the ball and had more shots, though with less accuracy than their rivals.

Our own xG estimate, calculated from the shots in the match, comes out close, with 2.219 for Levante and 1.929 for Athletic Club, a sign that although the ball spent more time at Basque feet, the home side's chances carried more real danger, something the final score ultimately confirmed.

The preview we published ahead of the match gave Levante a 36% chance of winning, 30% for a draw and 34% for Athletic Club, with expected goals of 1.34 for the home side and 1.29 for the visitors. The final result, with a dominant Levante from the start and a two-goal margin of victory, clearly beat that tighter forecast.

What the result means

The win comes at a tight point in the standings: before this matchday, Levante sat in 11th place with 10 points from 9 games played, while Athletic Club occupied 13th with 9 points from 8 matches, just one point below their opponents. With this result, Levante adds weight to its case in a midtable zone where every point matters, and Athletic Club leaves the Ciutat de Valencia with the feeling that the match slipped away in a seven-minute burst they could not undo, even while playing with a man advantage on the scoreboard for much of the second half.