Berlin: Soccer fans across Germany will be hoping a “psychic” cephalopod’s fabled skills of prophecy have failed him after Paul the octopus predicted a German loss in their World Cup semi-final with Spain.
With a 100% record so far, the British-born aquarium dweller at Sea Life in Oberhausen, western Germany has become a celebrity having correctly predicted a series of German wins and even Germany’s surprise group stage loss to Serbia.
On Tuesday, Paul once again was given the choice of picking food from two different plastic containers lowered into his tank — one decorated with a Spanish flag and one with a German flag.
The container which Paul opens first is seen as his pick.
He settled on both containers at first in a sign of hesitation before opening the box with the Spanish flag.
The decision was broadcast live on several news channels in Germany, although commentators immediately cast doubt over the prediction by Paul, who was born in Weymouth, England.
While Paul has been faultless at the World Cup so far, he is not infallible — at Euro 2008 he incorrectly picked Germany as the victor against Spain.
World Cup head-to-head
Spain has faced Germany once at the World Cup, in 1994, and faced West Germany twice before that.
But no clash was bigger than the match between the two sides in the Euro 2008 final. Fernando Torres was the hero in Vienna, scoring in the 33rd minute to give Spain a 1-0 victory and its second European title.
The biggest World Cup match the two sides have had came in Spain 1982. West Germany ended Spain’s hopes of hoisting the World Cup on home soil by beating La Roja 2-0 in Madrid, eliminating the squad from the tournament in the second group phase.
West Germany defeated Spain 2-1 in the group phase of the 1966 World Cup in England. Germany and Spain tied 1-1 in the group phase of the 1994 tournament hosted by the United States.
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