Cienciano v Alianza Lima — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera Division · Saturday, 16 May 2026. Final score 0–1 (half-time 0–1). 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.

Open this match in the app →

Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals49%51%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts Cienciano at 41%, the draw at 29% and Alianza Lima at 30%, from expected goals of 1.23 and 1.01.

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. Cienciano have 10 in 14 this season (5 of 7 at home), Alianza Lima 5 in 14 (1 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 59% and 46%.

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 56% and 49%.

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 53%.

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 39%, from expected goals of 1.23 for Cienciano and 1.01 for Alianza Lima. 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
Cienciano1471%36%71%
Alianza Lima1436%14%43%

Head to head

29 Sept 25Cienciano 2–1 Alianza LimaO2.5
3 May 25Alianza Lima 0–1 CiencianoU2.5
21 Aug 24Alianza Lima 3–0 CiencianoO2.5
14 Mar 24Cienciano 2–1 Alianza LimaO2.5
21 Aug 23Cienciano 0–0 Alianza LimaU2.5
2 Apr 23Alianza Lima 2–0 CiencianoU2.5

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