Bahia v RB Bragantino — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Serie A · Wednesday, 18 March 2026. Final score 2–0 (half-time 2–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 49% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals49%51%Under
Over 3.5 goals23%77%no pick
Both teams to score49%51%No

The result model puts Bahia at 56%, the draw at 26% and RB Bragantino at 18%, from expected goals of 1.58 and 0.77.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Serie A has produced over 2.5 goals in 46% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Bahia have 1 in 5 this season (0 of 2 at home), RB Bragantino 1 in 6 (0 of 3 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 42% and 40%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 5 and 6 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 47% and 51%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 48%.

Head to head. These sides have met 6 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 83%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 50%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 42%, from expected goals of 1.58 for Bahia and 0.77 for RB Bragantino. Folding in 30% of that view gives 48%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 49%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Bahia520%0%60%
RB Bragantino617%0%50%

Head to head

2 Nov 25Bahia 2–1 RB BragantinoO2.5
12 Jun 25RB Bragantino 0–3 BahiaO2.5
1 Sept 24RB Bragantino 2–1 BahiaO2.5
12 May 24Bahia 1–0 RB BragantinoU2.5
20 Aug 23Bahia 4–0 RB BragantinoO2.5
15 Apr 23RB Bragantino 2–1 BahiaO2.5

More: Bahia season stats · RB Bragantino season stats · Serie A table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.