FBC Melgar v UTC Cajamarca — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera Division · Monday, 4 May 2026. Final score 2–0 (half-time 0–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 55% 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 goals55%45%Over
Over 3.5 goals32%68%no pick
Both teams to score56%44%Yes

The result model puts FBC Melgar at 61%, the draw at 21% and UTC Cajamarca at 18%, from expected goals of 2.14 and 1.1.

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. FBC Melgar have 8 in 12 this season (4 of 6 at home), UTC Cajamarca 7 in 12 (5 of 6 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 57% and 54%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 12 and 12 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 51% and 53%.

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 5 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 60%. 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 63%, from expected goals of 2.14 for FBC Melgar and 1.1 for UTC Cajamarca. Folding in 30% of that view gives 55%.

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
FBC Melgar1267%42%67%
UTC Cajamarca1258%42%67%

Head to head

19 Jul 25UTC Cajamarca 1–2 FBC MelgarO2.5
8 Feb 25FBC Melgar 3–0 UTC CajamarcaO2.5
23 Oct 24FBC Melgar 1–0 UTC CajamarcaU2.5
12 May 24UTC Cajamarca 2–6 FBC MelgarO2.5
16 Aug 23FBC Melgar 1–1 UTC CajamarcaU2.5
18 Mar 23UTC Cajamarca 0–0 FBC MelgarU2.5

More: FBC Melgar season stats · UTC Cajamarca season stats · Primera Division table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.