Comerciantes Unidos v Sporting Cristal — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera Division · Saturday, 25 April 2026. Final score 1–0 (half-time 1–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 51% 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 goals51%49%Over
Over 3.5 goals28%72%no pick
Both teams to score54%46%Yes

The result model puts Comerciantes Unidos at 35%, the draw at 28% and Sporting Cristal at 37%, from expected goals of 1.25 and 1.29.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Primera Division has produced over 2.5 goals in 52% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Comerciantes Unidos have 6 in 11 this season (2 of 6 at home), Sporting Cristal 9 in 11 (3 of 5 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 52% and 61%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 11 and 11 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 49% and 56%.

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 52%.

Head to head. These sides have met 4 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 50%. 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 52%.

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 47%, from expected goals of 1.25 for Comerciantes Unidos and 1.29 for Sporting Cristal. Folding in 30% of that view gives 50%.

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 51%.

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
Comerciantes Unidos1155%36%73%
Sporting Cristal1182%45%82%

Head to head

1 Nov 25Comerciantes Unidos 1–4 Sporting CristalO2.5
29 Jun 25Sporting Cristal 2–0 Comerciantes UnidosU2.5
3 Nov 24Sporting Cristal 3–0 Comerciantes UnidosO2.5
25 May 24Comerciantes Unidos 0–1 Sporting CristalU2.5

More: Comerciantes Unidos season stats · Sporting Cristal season stats · Primera Division table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.