Primeira Liga · Portugal · Regular Season - 3

Sporting CP–Alverca

3–1

HT 1–0

Kick-off: Saturday, 22 August 2026 at 19:30
Status: Match Finished

What the model said, and what happened

Prediction 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

2'Sporting CPM. Araújo
55'Sporting CPMatheus Mendes (own goal)
60'Sporting CPL. Suárez (assist: Geny Catamo)
88'AlvercaFigueiredo (assist: V. Moreira)

Match statistics

Match statistics
Sporting CP		Alverca
5	Shots	3
2	Shots on target	1
1	Shots inside the box	1
1	Goalkeeper saves	1
1	Corners	0
1	Offsides	0
69%	Possession	31%
313	Passes	142
286	Accurate passes

What we expected, and what happened

Expected goals before kick-off: Sporting CP 2.36 · Alverca 0.65. On the pitch: 3-1.
Shots Sporting CP 5 · Alverca 3; on target 2 and 1.
Sporting CP kept the ball more (69%).

Referee

Fabio Jose Costa Verissimo, Portugal→

6.00

yellows per match

0.40

reds per match

matches of data

5 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 76.4%: “Sporting CP to win”. Second comes “a draw” at 16.4%.
Behind that distribution are the expected goals: 2.36 for Sporting CP, 0.65 for Alverca.
The highest double chance value is 92.7% (1X — Sporting CP win or draw).
These values were computed from 1,243 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.

Sporting CP to win76.4%

Draw16.4%

Alverca to win7.3%

When the model has said 75–80% in the past, 774 of 960 predictions were correct (80.6%). Accuracy record →

6	Fouls	9

1	Yellow cards	2

0	Red cards	0

First half

Actual: 1–0

Sporting CP lead at half-time68.4%

Level at half-time29.7%

Alverca lead at half-time1.9%

First-half double chance

1X — Sporting CP ahead or level98.1%

12 — not level at half-time70.3%

X2 — level or Alverca ahead31.6%

These values are not a fraction of the full-match prediction; they come from a separate model trained on the first-half scores of 1243 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

Sporting CP: at least 12Actual: 6
Alverca: at least 12Actual: 9

Corners

Sporting CP: at least 5
Alverca: at least 3

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 Sporting CP score2.36

Attack: Sporting CP score 65% more than the league's average team — one of the sharpest attacks in the league.

Opponent's defence: Alverca's defence is close to the league average (1.00×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 2.36 goals (including home advantage).

How many goals Alverca score0.65

Attack: Alverca score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: Sporting CP concede 32% below the league average — a defence that seriously brakes even a strong attack.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 0.65 goals (including the away penalty).

Most likely scorelines

2–014.2%3–011.1%1–010.9%

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 3 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.