Athletic Club will host Real Madrid on Saturday at 16:00 in Lezama, and Sara Ortega arrives with the memory of having decided the last meeting between the sides. Athletic won that game 1-0 at the Alfredo Di Stéfano on 13 January, with Ortega scoring the only goal.
That is why her name sits at the center of this fixture now. Athletic is fifth with 15 points, seven behind second-place Real Madrid, so the match offers a chance to narrow the gap and keep the push for the upper half of the table alive. Ortega, who has played eight of the team’s nine matches this season and has one goal and two assists, said it would be a dream to repeat that moment again.
She has reason to feel involved. Ortega has played 117 matches for Athletic and scored nine goals, and she said she did not have a preseason because of injury but is now at 100 percent and ready to help wherever Víctor Martín asks. That matters for a team that is trying to combine possession, build-up from the back, rhythm, intensity and energy, and that describes itself as being in very good form.
Still, the lift from that description comes with a recent bruise. Athletic is coming off a 2-0 loss to Costa Adeje Tenerife at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López, and the club’s momentum will be tested immediately by a visit from a side above it in the standings. Ortega said the team feels it can look upward regardless of the result, and she added that playing the Champions with Athletic would be a dream, with qualification this season the target.
That makes Saturday more than another league date. If Athletic can turn its home match into another result against Real Madrid, it strengthens both its place in the table and the sense that this young squad can stay in the race for the Champions League places. If not, the seven-point gap will still be there when the final whistle goes, and the next question will be whether Athletic can keep pace with the teams ahead of it.
