Al final de la primera parte, el marcador mostraba un empate.

Al final is the normal Spanish expression for at the end.

It is a contraction:

• a + el = al

So:

• al final = at the end

En el final is much less common in everyday Spanish and often sounds less natural here. In sports narration, al final de... is the standard way to say at the end of....

Examples:

• Al final del partido, todos aplaudieron.
• Al final de la película, lloré.

De la primera parte means of the first half or more literally of the first part.

In a sports context, especially football/soccer, la primera parte usually means the first half.

Breakdown:

• de = of
• la = the
• primera = first
• parte = part / half

So in natural English, this part of the sentence is usually understood as:

• At the end of the first half...

In sports, Spanish often uses parte to talk about halves of a match, especially in football commentary and reporting.

So:

• primera parte = first half
• segunda parte = second half

While mitad literally means half, primera mitad is less typical in this kind of sports sentence.

For a learner, it is useful to remember:

• In general math or quantity: mitad
• In many sports contexts: primera parte / segunda parte

Here, el marcador means the scoreboard or the scoreline.

Depending on context, it can refer to:

• the physical scoreboard in the stadium
• the score being shown

In this sentence, English would usually translate it naturally as:

• the scoreboard showed a draw or
• the score was level

So marcador is not the marker you write with. It is a sports word here.

Mostraba is the imperfect tense of mostrar.

The imperfect is often used to describe:

• background information
• a situation in progress
• what things were like at a certain moment

Here, the sentence is describing the state of the scoreboard at that point in the game:

• At the end of the first half, the scoreboard was showing a draw.

If you said mostró, that would sound more like a completed action:

• the scoreboard showed... which is possible in some contexts, but mostraba fits better when describing the score as it stood at that moment.

So the imperfect here gives a descriptive, background feel.

Yes — that is often the best translation.

Mostraba can be translated as:

• showed
• was showing

In this sentence, was showing helps reflect the imperfect tense more clearly:

• At the end of the first half, the scoreboard was showing a draw.

That said, natural English might also simply say:

• At the end of the first half, the score was tied.

Because empate is being treated as a noun here: a tie / a draw.

So:

• mostraba un empate = showed a draw

The indefinite article un is normal in this structure.

Compare:

• Había un empate. = There was a tie.
• El partido terminó en empate. = The match ended in a draw.

Notice that after en, Spanish often drops the article:

• en empate, not usually en un empate

But after mostraba, un empate is perfectly natural.

In Spain Spanish, empate means a draw or a tie in sports.

Examples:

• El partido acabó en empate. = The match ended in a draw.
• Iban empate a uno. = They were tied at one-one.

In football/soccer, this is a very common word. In English, whether you say draw or tie depends on your variety of English:

• British English often prefers draw
• American English often prefers tie

Yes, it is completely normal.

The structure is:

• Al final de la primera parte = time expression
• el marcador = subject
• mostraba = verb
• un empate = object

Spanish often puts time expressions at the beginning:

• Al final de la primera parte, el marcador mostraba un empate.

You could also say:

• El marcador mostraba un empate al final de la primera parte.

Both are grammatical, but the original version sounds very natural because it sets the scene first.

Yes. The sentence is correct, but sports Spanish often uses other very common expressions too.

For example:

• Al final de la primera parte, había empate.
• Al final de la primera parte, el partido iba empate.
• Al final de la primera parte, el resultado era de empate.
• Al descanso, el marcador reflejaba un empate.

Also, in football, al descanso is very common:

• Al descanso, había empate. = At half-time, it was a draw.

So your sentence is good, but there are several natural alternatives depending on style.

It is especially common in football, but not only football.

In Spain, primera parte and segunda parte are very normal for matches divided into two main periods. However, the exact terminology can vary by sport.

For football/soccer:

• primera parte = first half
• segunda parte = second half

Because the sentence includes marcador and empate, the sports context is very clear, and most people would understand it as something like football commentary.

Yes, but they are not always used in exactly the same way.

• marcador often refers to the displayed score or scoreboard
• resultado means result or scoreline

Compare:

• El marcador mostraba un empate. = The scoreboard was showing a draw.
• El resultado era de empate. = The result/scoreline was a draw.

So both can relate to the score, but marcador is a bit more visual and sports-specific in this kind of sentence.