Liga I · Saturday, 31 October 2026 · 18:00. Our rating makes this 51% to go over 2.5 goals, so our lean is over. The Liga I average is 46%.
| Market | Yes | No | Our call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Over 2.5 goals | 51% | 49% | Over |
| Over 3.5 goals | 33% | 67% | no pick |
| Both teams to score | 48% | 52% | No |
The result model puts Universitatea Craiova at 81%, the draw at 13% and FC Botosani at 5%, from expected goals of 2.57 and 0.51.
The league sets the starting point. Liga I has produced over 2.5 goals in 46% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.
Each side's own record. Universitatea Craiova have 6 in 12 this season (5 of 7 at home), FC Botosani 6 in 13 (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 48% and 46%.
Last season still counts, briefly. With 12 and 13 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 46%.
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 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 46%.
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 59%, from expected goals of 2.57 for Universitatea Craiova and 0.51 for FC Botosani. 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.
| Team | Games | O2.5 | O3.5 | BTTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universitatea Craiova | 12 | 50% | 50% | 33% |
| FC Botosani | 13 | 46% | 38% | 54% |
Our numbers give this match a 66% chance of at least one goal before half-time and 35% of two or more. The Liga I rates, last season and this season combined, are 67% and 34% (this season so far: 65% with a first-half goal, from 97 games). After the break: 76% for a goal and 48% for two or more (league 77% and 44%). Universitatea Craiova's last 50 games had a first-half goal 60% of the time and a second-half goal 76%; FC Botosani's last 50, 68% and 72%. A goal in both halves: 48% (league 51%). Highest-scoring half: second 44%, first 30%, level 26% — close to the league's usual split, because team form says little about which half is busier. Team form says less about a single half than about a full match, so these numbers stay close to the league's.
Every match ranked the same way: first half goals today · second half goals today · goal in both halves today · tomorrow.
More: Universitatea Craiova season stats · FC Botosani season stats · Liga I table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.