União de Leiria v Benfica B — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Liga 2 · Saturday, 15 August 2026. Final score 1–2 (half-time 1–1). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 51% 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 goals51%49%Over
Over 3.5 goals30%70%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts União de Leiria at 43%, the draw at 26% and Benfica B at 32%, from expected goals of 1.54 and 1.28.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Liga 2 has produced over 2.5 goals in 44% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. União de Leiria have 0 in 1 this season, Benfica B 0 in 1. 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 43% and 43%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 1 and 1 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 51% 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 47%.

Head to head. These sides have met 6 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 83%. 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 49%.

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 54%, from expected goals of 1.54 for União de Leiria and 1.28 for Benfica B. Folding in 30% of that view gives 50%.

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 51%.

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
União de Leiria10%0%0%
Benfica B10%0%0%

Head to head

11 Apr 26Benfica B 2–2 União de LeiriaO2.5
30 Nov 25União de Leiria 2–2 Benfica BO2.5
18 Apr 25União de Leiria 1–3 Benfica BO2.5
7 Dec 24Benfica B 0–5 União de LeiriaO2.5
29 Jan 24Benfica B 0–1 União de LeiriaU2.5
19 Aug 23União de Leiria 3–1 Benfica BO2.5

More: União de Leiria season stats · Benfica B season stats · Liga 2 table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.