Flamengo v Palmeiras — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Serie A · Sunday, 24 May 2026. Final score 0–3 (half-time 0–1). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 47% 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 goals47%53%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score51%49%Yes

The result model puts Flamengo at 53%, the draw at 27% and Palmeiras at 20%, from expected goals of 1.49 and 0.81.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Serie A has produced over 2.5 goals in 47% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Flamengo have 9 in 15 this season (3 of 6 at home), Palmeiras 8 in 16 (4 of 8 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 48%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 15 and 16 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 50% 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 49%.

Head to head. These sides have met 6 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 33%. 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 48%.

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 40%, from expected goals of 1.49 for Flamengo and 0.81 for Palmeiras. Folding in 30% of that view gives 46%.

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 47%.

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
Flamengo1560%20%53%
Palmeiras1650%19%69%

Head to head

19 Oct 25Flamengo 3–2 PalmeirasO2.5
25 May 25Palmeiras 0–2 FlamengoU2.5
11 Aug 24Flamengo 1–1 PalmeirasU2.5
21 Apr 24Palmeiras 0–0 FlamengoU2.5
9 Nov 23Flamengo 3–0 PalmeirasO2.5
9 Jul 23Palmeiras 1–1 FlamengoU2.5

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