PAOK vs Iraklis
Our model puts a PAOK win at 71.6% in this Greek Super League fixture — the clearest call on this fixture. Expected goals run 2.21 to 0.68.
What this probability has been worth
A number is worth what it has been worth. Across 1,941 predictions published before kick-off and scored against the result afterwards, the calls we priced between 65% and 75% came in 69.9% of the time — 183 fixtures in that band. The model claimed 69.4%, so the two are within 0.5 points of each other. In this range the stated probability has meant roughly what it says.
Where we disagree with the market
Bookmakers price PAOK at 1.24, which implies about 80.6%. Our model has it at 71.6% — 9 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
PAOK carry a rating of 1715 against 1493 for Iraklis, a gap of 222 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, PAOK's attack should find room against Iraklis's defence, by 186 points. That is the mechanism behind the expected-goals line rather than a separate opinion about it.
Early or late
40.9% of PAOK's goals have come after the break, against 56.2% for the sides we measure, over 22 goals. A side that does its scoring early has more to protect than most, and a lead at the break is likelier to be the story of the match than the first act of it.
Behind the defence
56.1% of the shots on target PAOK face do not end up in the net, against 67.3% for the sides we measure. That is low enough to matter, and it is the kind of number that flatters or punishes a side's record without saying much about how it plays.
A high-scoring home side
One model here does nothing but estimate how likely the home side is to score four goals or more, and on this fixture it reads 71.8%. Across our settled fixtures that happens about 8% of the time, so this is well above ordinary. It says nothing about who wins — a side can score four and still be caught — but a match where one team is expected to run up a total is one where the scoreline is much harder to call than the result.