We said: Philadelphia Union 3-0 Columbus Crew
All the signs indicate that Philadelphia should be comfortable winners on Saturday night, getting their 2023 campaign off to the perfect start against a side they have a very good recent record against.
Not only are the U undefeated against Columbus in the last five meetings, they have not conceded a single goal in that time, and we expect that record to continue this weekend, given the disparity between the two sides last season.
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Read more.Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Philadelphia Union win with a probability of 57.38%. A draw had a probability of 22% and a win for Columbus Crew had a probability of 20.61%.
The most likely scoreline for a Philadelphia Union win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.92%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.69%) and 2-0 (9.32%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.31%), while for a Columbus Crew win it was 1-2 (5.49%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 3.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Philadelphia Union would win this match.