Jupiler Pro League · Belgium · Regular Season - 1

Zulte Waregem–KV Mechelen

1–1

HT 0–1

Kick-off: Saturday, 26 July 2025 at 16:15
Status: Match Finished
Venue: Elindus Arena, Waregem

What the model said, and what happened

Ended level — we gave the draw 25%

This verdict goes into the public record unchanged; we do not filter out the ones we get wrong. The model's track record

Goals and red cards

16'KV MechelenLion Lauberbach (assist: Kerim Mrabti)
90'Zulte WaregemJ. Vossen (penalty)

Match statistics

Match statistics
Zulte Waregem		KV Mechelen
21	Shots	7
5	Shots on target	2
14	Shots inside the box	4
1	Goalkeeper saves	4
9	Corners	6
0	Offsides	0
56%	Possession	44%
524	Passes	413
452	Accurate passes

What we expected, and what happened

Expected goals before kick-off: Zulte Waregem 1.37 · KV Mechelen 1.63. On the pitch: 1-1.
Shots Zulte Waregem 21 · KV Mechelen 7; on target 5 and 2.
Zulte Waregem kept the ball more (56%).

Referee

K. van Damme→

There's no card data for this referee from before this match yet. We don't invent an average; it will appear here once the data exists.

Model prediction

Why this prediction?

The model puts the most likely outcome at 45.2%: “KV Mechelen to win”. Second comes “Zulte Waregem to win” at 29.5%.
Behind that distribution are the expected goals: 1.39 for Zulte Waregem, 1.74 for KV Mechelen.
The highest double chance value is 74.8% (12 — any result other than a draw).
These values were computed from 858 past matches.

This is a prediction, not a guarantee; a probability is not a certainty.

These sentences are built by a fixed template; every number in them comes straight from the model's computation, none invented while the text was written.

Zulte Waregem to win29.5%

Draw25.2%

KV Mechelen to win45.2%

When the model has said 45–50% in the past, 2,070 of 4,393 predictions were correct (47.1%). Accuracy record →

8	Fouls	8

3	Yellow cards	3

0	Red cards	0

First half

Actual: 0–1

Zulte Waregem lead at half-time25.1%

Level at half-time40.5%

KV Mechelen lead at half-time34.4%

First-half double chance

1X — Zulte Waregem ahead or level65.6%

12 — not level at half-time59.5%

X2 — level or KV Mechelen ahead74.9%

These values are not a fraction of the full-match prediction; they come from a separate model trained on the first-half scores of 858 matches. Its edge over the base rate is markedly smaller than the full-match model's — the measured figure is on the accuracy record. Read them more cautiously. First-half goal markets are not published because they failed to beat the base rate.

Expected fouls and corners

Fouls

Zulte Waregem: at least 10Actual: 8
KV Mechelen: at least 11Actual: 8

Corners

Zulte Waregem: at least 4Actual: 9
KV Mechelen: at least 4Actual: 6

These figures are set to hold in at least 60% of matches; in the rest the count comes in below them. No upper bound is stated — we make no "at most" claim. Yellow cards were measured and are not published: there our model did not beat the historical average.

What these probabilities rest on

Expected goals comes out of a team's attack weighed against its opponent's defence. A strong attack is damped when it meets a strong defence — which is why comparing the ratings on their own is misleading.

How many goals Zulte Waregem score1.37

Attack: Zulte Waregem score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: KV Mechelen's defence is close to the league average (0.98×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.37 goals (including home advantage).

How many goals KV Mechelen score1.63

Attack: KV Mechelen score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: Zulte Waregem concede 47% more than the league average — the defence is the weakest link in this match.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.63 goals (including the away penalty).

Most likely scorelines

1–112.0%1–210.1%2–17.9%

A single scoreline is always less likely than an outcome: “home win” is the sum of 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 and dozens more. So the most likely single score can be a draw while the most likely outcome is a home win; the two do not contradict each other.

Week 1 of the season. This prediction was computed from previous seasons. Summer transfers, budget changes and squad rebuilds aren't in the ratings yet — the model can only see that a team has been rebuilt once new results come in.

We measured this and we're not hiding it: in the opening week of past seasons the model came in 3.3 points below the accuracy it claimed (n=220) — for the rest of the season it beats its own claim. The tendency points this way, though it is not proof on its own: in the opening week it slightly over-calls home wins (said 42.7%, got 39.5%) and slightly under-calls draws (said 26.1%, got 28.2%).

This sample is small and not statistically established, which is why we do not correct the model for it. The correction we tried (pulling probabilities toward the league average) didn't win on holdout, so it wasn't added. Read opening-week predictions with a little more caution.