Imisli FK v Neftchi Baku — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Premyer Liqa · Friday, 11 September 2026. Final score 2–3 (half-time 2–2). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 46% 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 goals46%54%Under
Over 3.5 goals26%74%no pick
Both teams to score44%56%No

The result model puts Imisli FK at 14%, the draw at 25% and Neftchi Baku at 61%, from expected goals of 0.61 and 1.61.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Premyer Liqa has produced over 2.5 goals in 48% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Imisli FK have 2 in 4 this season, Neftchi Baku 3 in 4 (1 of 2 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 48% and 52%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 4 and 4 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 41% and 51%.

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 46%.

Head to head. These sides have met 3 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 47%.

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 38%, from expected goals of 0.61 for Imisli FK and 1.61 for Neftchi Baku. Folding in 30% of that view gives 45%.

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 46%.

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
Imisli FK450%25%50%
Neftchi Baku475%75%50%

Head to head

20 Mar 26Neftchi Baku 6–0 Imisli FKO2.5
23 Nov 25Neftchi Baku 2–3 Imisli FKO2.5
22 Aug 25Imisli FK 0–0 Neftchi BakuU2.5

More: Imisli FK season stats · Neftchi Baku season stats · Premyer Liqa table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.