Botafogo PB v Maringá — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Serie C · Saturday, 26 September 2026. Final score 0–0 (half-time 0–0). Before kick-off we rated it 56% under 2.5 goals — the match finished with 0, so that call landed. That rating was frozen into a version-controlled ledger before the game and has not been touched since.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals45%55%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score51%49%Yes

The result model puts Botafogo PB at 41%, the draw at 25% and Maringá at 33%, from expected goals of 1.53 and 1.36.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Serie C has produced over 2.5 goals in 35% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Botafogo PB have 8 in 22 this season (4 of 10 at home), Maringá 12 in 22 (5 of 11 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 36% and 44%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 22 and 22 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 40%.

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 38%.

Head to head. These sides have met 3 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 33%. 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 38%.

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 55%, from expected goals of 1.53 for Botafogo PB and 1.36 for Maringá. Folding in 30% of that view gives 43%.

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
Botafogo PB2236%18%41%
Maringá2255%41%59%

Head to head

19 Sept 26Maringá 2–0 Botafogo PBU2.5
30 May 26Botafogo PB 2–1 MaringáO2.5
18 May 25Maringá 1–1 Botafogo PBU2.5

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