Con una sonrisa literally means with a smile. It is a very natural way in Spanish to describe someone’s expression or manner.
So:
Spanish could also use sonriendo (smiling), but con una sonrisa sounds slightly more descriptive and idiomatic in many contexts.
Había vivido is the pluperfect (also called the past perfect) of vivir.
It is formed with:
So:
It is used here because her experience of never having lived/experienced such an intense match is presented as something that existed before the moment when she said it.
In English, this is also very natural:
Yes, vivir usually means to live, but it can also mean to experience something emotionally or personally.
So in this sentence:
This is a very common Spanish usage, especially when talking about strong events, emotions, or situations.
A literal translation like had never lived a match sounds strange in English, but in Spanish it is completely natural.
Tan is used in comparisons or in structures meaning so / such.
Here:
By contrast:
So:
Because the sentence is expressing an extreme degree in relation to everything she had experienced before, tan is the better choice.
No. Although partido can have different meanings in Spanish, here it clearly means match or game, especially because of the sports context created by vestuario.
Common meanings of partido include:
Here, vestuario + partido strongly points to sports.
The personal a is generally used with specific people (and sometimes pets or personified beings), not with things.
So:
Compare:
Yes, one clue is vestuario, which is very common in Spain for changing room / locker room, especially in sports.
Learners may also notice that the whole sentence sounds very natural in Spain-style sports narration:
These are all very idiomatic in Spanish from Spain, though much of the sentence would also be understood elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world.