Santa Fe v Fortaleza FC — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Primera A · Sunday, 6 September 2026. Final score 2–2 (half-time 2–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 45% 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 goals45%55%Under
Over 3.5 goals21%79%no pick
Both teams to score52%48%Yes

The result model puts Santa Fe at 57%, the draw at 26% and Fortaleza FC at 17%, from expected goals of 1.61 and 0.76.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Primera A 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. Santa Fe have 14 in 29 this season (9 of 15 at home), Fortaleza FC 12 in 26 (5 of 12 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 46% and 45%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 29 and 26 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 46% and 43%.

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 44%.

Head to head. These sides have met 7 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 43%. 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 44%.

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 1.61 for Santa Fe and 0.76 for Fortaleza FC. Folding in 30% of that view gives 44%.

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 45%.

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
Santa Fe2948%28%72%
Fortaleza FC2646%15%69%

Head to head

7 Feb 26Fortaleza FC 1–1 Santa FeU2.5
3 Dec 25Fortaleza FC 1–2 Santa FeO2.5
22 Nov 25Santa Fe 3–0 Fortaleza FCO2.5
24 Aug 25Fortaleza FC 2–0 Santa FeU2.5
9 Mar 25Santa Fe 2–0 Fortaleza FCU2.5
22 Sept 24Fortaleza FC 1–3 Santa FeO2.5

More: Santa Fe season stats · Fortaleza FC season stats · Primera A table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.