First League · Bulgaria · Regular Season - 3

Slavia Sofia–Lokomotiv Sofia

1–1

HT 1–1

Kick-off: Friday, 31 July 2026 at 16:00
Status: Match Finished
Venue: Stadion Slavia, Sofia

What the model said, and what happened

Ended level — we gave the draw 29%

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

36'Lokomotiv SofiaN. Penev
42'Slavia SofiaI. Minchev (assist: I. Stefanov)

What we expected, and what happened

Expected goals before kick-off: Slavia Sofia 1.28 · Lokomotiv Sofia 1.18. On the pitch: 1-1.

Referee

V. Mitrev→

4.89

yellows per match

0.22

reds per match

matches of data

Model prediction

Why this prediction?

The model puts the most likely outcome at 37.9%: “Slavia Sofia to win”. Second comes “Lokomotiv Sofia to win” at 32.8%.
Behind that distribution are the expected goals: 1.28 for Slavia Sofia, 1.18 for Lokomotiv Sofia.
The highest double chance value is 70.7% (12 — any result other than a draw).
These values were computed from 1,027 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.

Slavia Sofia to win37.9%

Draw29.3%

Lokomotiv Sofia to win32.8%

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

First half

Actual: 1–1

Slavia Sofia lead at half-time35.9%

Level at half-time45.6%

Lokomotiv Sofia lead at half-time18.5%

First-half double chance

1X — Slavia Sofia ahead or level81.5%

12 — not level at half-time54.4%

X2 — level or Lokomotiv Sofia ahead64.1%

These values are not a fraction of the full-match prediction; they come from a separate model trained on the first-half scores of 1027 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

Slavia Sofia: at least 9
Lokomotiv Sofia: at least 11

Corners

Slavia Sofia: at least 4
Lokomotiv Sofia: at least 5

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 Slavia Sofia score1.28

Attack: Slavia Sofia score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: Lokomotiv Sofia concede 15% more than the league average, which pushes the expectation up.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.28 goals (including home advantage).

How many goals Lokomotiv Sofia score1.18

Attack: Lokomotiv Sofia score close to the league average.

Opponent's defence: Slavia Sofia's defence is close to the league average (1.11×), so it doesn't move the expectation much.

Result: These two effects give an expectation of 1.18 goals (including the away penalty).

Most likely scorelines

1–114.9%1–010.0%0–19.1%

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 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.