Botafogo SP v CRB — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Serie B · Wednesday, 1 July 2026. Final score 0–1 (half-time 0–1). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 44% 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 goals44%56%Under
Over 3.5 goals22%78%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts Botafogo SP at 42%, the draw at 27% and CRB at 31%, from expected goals of 1.38 and 1.15.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Serie B has produced over 2.5 goals in 40% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Botafogo SP have 5 in 14 this season (4 of 6 at home), CRB 9 in 14 (5 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 39% and 49%.

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 38% and 41%.

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 40%.

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 41%.

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 46%, from expected goals of 1.38 for Botafogo SP and 1.15 for CRB. Folding in 30% of that view gives 42%.

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 44%.

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
Botafogo SP1436%7%50%
CRB1464%43%71%

Head to head

24 Sept 25CRB 3–2 Botafogo SPO2.5
27 May 25Botafogo SP 2–1 CRBO2.5
25 Sept 24Botafogo SP 0–0 CRBU2.5
18 Jul 24CRB 4–1 Botafogo SPO2.5
5 Aug 23CRB 0–0 Botafogo SPU2.5
29 Apr 23Botafogo SP 2–0 CRBU2.5

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