Cienciano v Sporting Cristal — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera Division · Sunday, 31 May 2026. Final score 3–2 (half-time 1–2). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 59% 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 goals59%41%Over
Over 3.5 goals35%65%no pick
Both teams to score61%39%Yes

The result model puts Cienciano at 55%, the draw at 22% and Sporting Cristal at 23%, from expected goals of 2.11 and 1.31.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Primera Division has produced over 2.5 goals in 51% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Cienciano have 11 in 16 this season (5 of 8 at home), Sporting Cristal 12 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 58% and 61%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 16 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 56% 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 55%.

Head to head. These sides have met 6 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 67%. 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 56%.

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 66%, from expected goals of 2.11 for Cienciano and 1.31 for Sporting Cristal. Folding in 30% of that view gives 59%.

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
Cienciano1669%38%69%
Sporting Cristal1675%44%81%

Head to head

7 Nov 25Sporting Cristal 2–1 CiencianoO2.5
5 Jul 25Cienciano 1–1 Sporting CristalU2.5
27 Jul 24Sporting Cristal 5–1 CiencianoO2.5
10 Feb 24Cienciano 2–2 Sporting CristalO2.5
23 Oct 23Cienciano 1–0 Sporting CristalU2.5
2 Jun 23Sporting Cristal 4–2 CiencianoO2.5

More: Cienciano 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.