First League · Bulgaria · Regular Season - 2

CSKA Sofia–Spartak Varna

1–1

HT 1–0

Kick-off: Saturday, 26 July 2025 at 18:15
Status: Match Finished

What the model said, and what happened

Ended level — we gave the draw 22%double chance: correct

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

7'CSKA SofiaO. Skarsem (assist: I. Tasev)
47'Spartak VarnaXande

Match statistics

Match statistics
CSKA Sofia		Spartak Varna
19	Shots	3
6	Shots on target	2
14	Shots inside the box	3
1	Goalkeeper saves	5
11	Corners	1
0	Offsides	0
72%	Possession	28%
652	Passes	255
554	Accurate passes

What we expected, and what happened

Expected goals before kick-off: CSKA Sofia 1.87 · Spartak Varna 0.68. On the pitch: 1-1.
Shots CSKA Sofia 19 · Spartak Varna 3; on target 6 and 2.
CSKA Sofia kept the ball more (72%).

Referee

K. Kolev→

5.52

yellows per match

0.62

reds per match

matches of data

Model prediction

Why this prediction?

The model puts the most likely outcome at 66.0%: “CSKA Sofia to win”. Second comes “a draw” at 22.4%.
Behind that distribution are the expected goals: 1.87 for CSKA Sofia, 0.68 for Spartak Varna.
The highest double chance value is 88.4% (1X — CSKA Sofia win or draw).
These values were computed from 772 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.

CSKA Sofia to win66.0%

Draw22.4%

Spartak Varna to win11.6%

When the model has said 65–70% in the past, 1,039 of 1,527 predictions were correct (68.0%). Accuracy record →

8	Fouls	11

0	Yellow cards	2

0	Red cards	0

First half

Actual: 1–0

CSKA Sofia lead at half-time44.9%

Level at half-time42.2%

Spartak Varna lead at half-time12.9%

First-half double chance

1X — CSKA Sofia ahead or level87.1%

12 — not level at half-time57.8%

X2 — level or Spartak Varna ahead55.1%

These values are not a fraction of the full-match prediction; they come from a separate model trained on the first-half scores of 772 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

CSKA Sofia: at least 11Actual: 8
Spartak Varna: at least 10Actual: 11

Corners

CSKA Sofia: at least 7Actual: 11
Spartak Varna: at least 2Actual: 1

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 CSKA Sofia score1.87

Attack: CSKA Sofia score above the league average (32% more).

Opponent's defence: Spartak Varna's defence is close to the league average (1.05×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.87 goals (including home advantage).

How many goals Spartak Varna score0.68

Attack: Spartak Varna score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: CSKA Sofia concede 28% fewer than the league average, which pulls the expectation down.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 0.68 goals (including the away penalty).

Most likely scorelines

2–014.1%1–014.0%1–111.2%

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 2 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: the bias is only pronounced in the opening week. In this week the model's overall accuracy does not separate from the rest of the season — that is, we found no measurable flaw. The one tendency across all opening weeks is that home wins are called slightly too often (said 43.0%, got 41.9%; n=583).

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.