Stade Rennais vs AJ Auxerre
Our model puts a Stade Rennais win at 61.6% in this Ligue 1 fixture — the clearest call on this fixture. Expected goals run 1.87 to 0.82.
What this probability has been worth
A number is worth what it has been worth. Across 1,776 predictions published before kick-off and scored against the result afterwards, the calls we priced between 55% and 65% came in 50.2% of the time — 313 fixtures in that band. That is 9.3 points below what the model claimed, so read this figure as optimistic: in this range it has been saying more than it could support. We publish the gap rather than quietly shading the number, because a record that only shows its good bands is not a record.
Where we disagree with the market
Bookmakers price Stade Rennais at 1.43, which implies about 69.9%. Our model has it at 61.6% — 8.3 points lower. That is a wide gap, and it is worth being plain about what it means: it is not a claim that the price is wrong and we are right. It means two methods that usually agree have landed far apart on this one, and only the result will say which of them read it better.
The ratings gap
Stade Rennais carry a rating of 1721 against 1607 for AJ Auxerre, a gap of 113 points. On our scale that is the difference between a side that controls most of its fixtures and one that has to earn each of them. It is also the single largest input into the probabilities above.
Attack against defence
The single rating hides where the mismatch actually sits. Splitting it, Stade Rennais's attack should find room against AJ Auxerre's defence, by 104 points. That is the mechanism behind the expected-goals line rather than a separate opinion about it.