AS Roma vs Cagliari
Our model puts an AS Roma win at 68.1% in this Serie A fixture — the clearest call on this fixture. Expected goals run 2.02 to 0.69.
What this probability has been worth
A number is worth what it has been worth. Across 2,096 predictions published before kick-off and scored against the result afterwards, the calls we priced between 65% and 75% came in 70.9% of the time — 199 fixtures in that band. The model claimed 69.4%, so the two are within 1.5 points of each other. In this range the stated probability has meant roughly what it says.
Where we disagree with the market
Bookmakers price AS Roma at 1.32, which implies about 75.8%. Our model has it at 68.1% — 7.7 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
AS Roma carry a rating of 1820 against 1646 for Cagliari, a gap of 174 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, AS Roma's attack should find room against Cagliari's defence, by 226 points. That is the mechanism behind the expected-goals line rather than a separate opinion about it.
How often they shoot
AS Roma take 16 shots a match against an average of 11.9. Volume like that usually means territory rather than precision, and it is why a side can dominate a match and still not win it.
Early or late
40% of Cagliari's goals have come after the break, against 56.2% for the sides we measure, over 15 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
88.2% of the shots on target AS Roma face do not end up in the net, against 67.4% for the sides we measure. That is a keeper and a defence having a good run of it — and a figure that tends to drift back toward the middle, which is worth remembering before reading too much into it.
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 66.2%. 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.