Deportes Tolima v Santa Fe — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera A · Sunday, 5 April 2026. Final score 2–2 (half-time 1–2). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 43% 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.

Open this match in the app →

Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals43%57%Under
Over 3.5 goals19%81%no pick
Both teams to score50%50%No

The result model puts Deportes Tolima at 48%, the draw at 29% and Santa Fe at 24%, from expected goals of 1.35 and 0.87.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Primera A has produced over 2.5 goals in 44% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Deportes Tolima have 5 in 14 this season (3 of 7 at home), Santa Fe 6 in 14 (2 of 7 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 41% and 43%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 14 and 14 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 41% and 43%.

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 43%.

Head to head. These sides have met 10 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 20%. 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 41%.

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 38%, from expected goals of 1.35 for Deportes Tolima and 0.87 for Santa Fe. Folding in 30% of that view gives 41%.

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 43%.

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
Deportes Tolima1436%29%50%
Santa Fe1443%14%79%

Head to head

29 Nov 25Deportes Tolima 1–0 Santa FeU2.5
26 Nov 25Santa Fe 1–2 Deportes TolimaO2.5
19 Jul 25Deportes Tolima 0–1 Santa FeU2.5
1 Feb 25Santa Fe 0–0 Deportes TolimaU2.5
1 Oct 24Deportes Tolima 0–0 Santa FeU2.5
3 Jun 24Deportes Tolima 1–2 Santa FeO2.5

More: Deportes Tolima season stats · Santa Fe season stats · Primera A table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.