Botafogo SP v Avai — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Serie B · Monday, 6 July 2026. Final score 3–1 (half-time 1–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 43% 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 goals43%57%Under
Over 3.5 goals20%80%no pick
Both teams to score49%51%No

The result model puts Botafogo SP at 44%, the draw at 28% and Avai at 28%, from expected goals of 1.34 and 1.02.

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 15 this season (4 of 7 at home), Avai 7 in 15 (4 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 38% and 43%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 15 and 15 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 37% and 44%.

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 41%.

Head to head. These sides have met 5 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 40%. 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 42%, from expected goals of 1.34 for Botafogo SP and 1.02 for Avai. Folding in 30% of that view gives 41%.

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 43%.

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 SP1533%7%47%
Avai1547%20%47%

Head to head

23 Nov 25Botafogo SP 0–0 AvaiU2.5
28 Jul 25Avai 5–0 Botafogo SPO2.5
19 Nov 24Botafogo SP 1–3 AvaiO2.5
31 Jul 24Avai 1–1 Botafogo SPU2.5
7 Oct 23Botafogo SP 0–1 AvaiU2.5
11 Jun 23Avai 1–1 Botafogo SPU2.5

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