Jupiler Pro League · Belgium · Regular Season - 1

Standard Liege–Cercle Brugge

2–2

HT 1–1

Kick-off: Saturday, 8 August 2026 at 16:15
Status: Match Finished

What the model said, and what happened

Too close to call — only 3.8% between the top two

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

41'Cercle BruggeL. Mondele (assist: D. Vanzeir)
45'Standard LiegeD. Eckert Ayensa (assist: A. Abid)
48'Standard LiegeD. Eckert Ayensa (assist: C. Nielsen)
88'Cercle BruggeC. Ravych

Match statistics

Match statistics
Standard Liege		Cercle Brugge
20	Shots	18
6	Shots on target	2
15	Shots inside the box	13
0	Goalkeeper saves	2
7	Corners	11
0	Offsides	1
56%	Possession	44%
487	Passes	368
386	Accurate passes

What we expected, and what happened

Expected goals before kick-off: Standard Liege 1.33 · Cercle Brugge 1.25. On the pitch: 2-2.
Shots Standard Liege 20 · Cercle Brugge 18; on target 6 and 2.
Standard Liege kept the ball more (56%).

Referee

Jasper Vergoote, Belgium→

4.00

yellows per match

0.38

reds per match

matches of data

8 matches is a small sample — these averages are noisy and should not be read as a tendency.

Model prediction

Why this prediction?

The model puts the most likely outcome at 37.6%: “Standard Liege to win”. Second comes “Cercle Brugge to win” at 33.8%.
Behind that distribution are the expected goals: 1.33 for Standard Liege, 1.25 for Cercle Brugge.
The highest double chance value is 71.4% (12 — any result other than a draw).
These values were computed from 1,127 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.

Standard Liege to win37.6%

Draw28.6%

Cercle Brugge to win33.8%

When the model has said 35–40% in the past, 2,227 of 6,017 predictions were correct (37.0%). Accuracy record →

9	Fouls	13

1	Yellow cards	1

0	Red cards	0

First half

Actual: 1–1

Standard Liege lead at half-time32.8%

Level at half-time41.5%

Cercle Brugge lead at half-time25.7%

First-half double chance

1X — Standard Liege ahead or level74.3%

12 — not level at half-time58.5%

X2 — level or Cercle Brugge ahead67.2%

These values are not a fraction of the full-match prediction; they come from a separate model trained on the first-half scores of 1127 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

Standard Liege: at least 10Actual: 9
Cercle Brugge: at least 11Actual: 13

Corners

Standard Liege: at least 4Actual: 7
Cercle Brugge: at least 4Actual: 11

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 Standard Liege score1.33

Attack: Standard Liege score below the league average (25% fewer).

Opponent's defence: Cercle Brugge's defence is close to the league average (1.12×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.33 goals (including home advantage).

How many goals Cercle Brugge score1.25

Attack: Cercle Brugge score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: Standard Liege's defence is close to the league average (0.96×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.25 goals (including the away penalty).

Most likely scorelines

1–114.5%1–09.2%2–19.1%

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.