Fortunetellers are the hallmark of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Results predict pigs, hippos and even meerkats
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
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The fashion for animal predictors in sports came 10 years ago. The 2008 European Football Championship made Paul's octopus and the German Oberhausen aquarium famous all over the world. Who came up with the idea of putting food troughs and flags of the participants in the football championship into the aquarium for fortune-telling is no longer important. The bet worked. The octopus regularly opened the German feeder, and Germany won.
Since then, the octopus, peace be upon him (Paul barely survived his triumph), has many followers. During the World Cup in Russia, the number of oracle animals has grown exponentially. Their owners also expect to earn on the fame of pets.
Pig's choice
Where, if not in the homeland of football, in England, all kinds of Nostradamus can appear. Pig Mystic Marcus from Hedge, Derbyshire, has been making predictions for a long time. He specializes not only in sports - for example, the hog "foresaw" Britain's exit from the European Union in advance. Now it's time for football. The choice went like this: the owner of the animal laid out the same green apples on the ground, marked with the flags of the countries, and Marcus, after thinking, ate those with which he predicted victory in the world championship. According to him, Belgium, Argentina, Uruguay and Nigeria will reach the semifinals of the championship. The forecast for the final will come later.
The British reached almost to mice in fortune-telling. Little meerkats from the English Drayton Manor Zoo in Staffordshire were among the first to risk predicting the outcome of the 2018 World Cup opening match between the national teams of Russia and Saudi Arabia. They were offered mealworms to choose from. The animals gathered around a sign with our flag and had a meal. And you guessed it!
Achilles solution
In Russia, the animals also believed in our team in the opening match, perhaps more than the fans. Husky Elsa from Kemerovo makes guesses with the help of balls - whose ball is chosen, that team wins. Before the game with the Saudis, she confidently relied on the Russians. It was not without a little trick: under each ball lay a treat for a doggie.
Achilles the cat from the Hermitage has been deaf since birth. But this does not affect his psychic abilities in any way. He became famous last year at the Confederations Cup, when he guessed three out of four tournament results. The cat selects a bowl of food under the winning team's flag. The choice of the winner in the opening match of the Russians at the World Championship was not easy for the “blue-eyed blonde”. (He got fat over the winter and was obviously full.) But in the end it was our bowl. Now Achilles will guess at all the matches of the tournament, which will be held in St. Petersburg, for this he was even put on a special diet with three meals a day.
But the Kaliningrad hippos Glasik and Mila sat in a puddle. More precisely, their opinions on the result in the opening match were divided. Experts considered that animals are betting in this way for a draw ...
AT THIS TIME
What do the bookmakers say?
They almost unanimously believe in the Brazilians as future world champions - the rate on them is 5: 1. The bookmakers have a little less faith in the current championship winners - the German national team (5.75: 1). The French are quoted 7: 1. The Spaniards are almost also ranked (7.125: 1). And only then do Argentina and Messi (10: 1) and the Belgians, in whom the oracular animals believe so (12: 1). The top ten also includes the British, Portuguese, Uruguay and Croatia. The chances of the Russian national team are 61.75: 1.
KNOW-HOW
Iron competitors
At VDNKh robot Baxter predicted the outcome of the first match
Two hours before the start of the Russia - Saudi Arabia game, at the VDNKh Robostation, the question also hovered: who will win? And what about the robot Baxter, who normally "works" as a sorter at the plant, and in his free time chops into tic-tac-toe with visitors to VDNKh?
For several days, the robot memorized football predictions, and as a result, its neural network learned to copy human intuition, the organizers assure.
Why did you decide to ask the question specifically to Baxter? Exactly a year ago, he correctly guessed the outcome of 80% of the Confederations Cup matches. He prepared for the World Cup just as thoroughly and will guess the score of the games with the help of his “intellectual brains”.
We lay out three cubes in front of the robot - two with the names of the teams and one with the inscription "draw", - says Artur Zarkhi, director of the Robostation.
Baxter thought a little and chose a cube with the words "Russian National Team" written on it. And, as it turned out, I was not mistaken!
In the 2018 World Cup, the Hermitage cat Achilles was chosen as the main fluffy Nostradamus. The whole world has been following his predictions for several days. the site decided to remember which animals became oracles in the past World and European Championships.
Octopus Paul
The octopus Paul lived in the aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen. He gained worldwide fame during Euro 2008. On the eve of the games, Paul was given two troughs with food and the flags of the opposing teams were raised. The animal crawled into one of the feeders, thereby predicting the country that will win the match. In just five years of his life (and octopuses live that much), Paul predicted the outcome of 14 games. He also guessed all the matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The octopus was wrong only twice, once - when evaluating the final match between Spain and Germany in 2008.
Paul died on October 26, 2010. The next year, a monument was unveiled on the territory of the aquarium: an octopus on a soccer ball, inside of which is Paul's ashes.
Elephant Nelly
An elephant named Nelly became an oracle at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. Two gates were placed in front of the animal, over which plaques with the flags of the teams were placed. The press gathered around the stadium: everyone was waiting for the elephant to score a goal. The country whose goal the ball hit first became the loser in the tournament.
Having guessed all the games with the participation of German athletes, Nelly gave the victory to the national team from Japan before the ¼ final. Five times the elephant wanted to hit the Japanese goal, but the ball still flew into the fence of the German national team. In real play, the German team came close to scoring a goal, but the Japanese won. The women's team won 1-0.
Boar Funtik and Ferret Fred
At Euro 2012, the pink pig Funtik, who lives 20 kilometers from Kiev, became famous as a predictor. He made predictions on bowls of food, just like the current Nostradamus - the cat Achilles. They only fed the Ukrainian boar with corn sticks. Two identical plates with national team flags were placed in front of Funtik, and the boar chose who would win the match today. He managed to predict the results of only half of the matches of Euro 2012. However, the boar Funtik gained great fame in Ukraine, and was very drawn to people. They say he loved to drink beer with fans, and his weight reached 400 kilograms.
The ferret Fred, just like Funtik, used to read the bowls of food. Only the little animal was fed not with corn sticks, but with beef. Fred predicted only half of the results of the 2012 European Championship. He guessed all the matches of the semi-finals, and in the final the ferret made an unexpected mistake: he gave the victory to the Italian national team, although the Spaniards won.
Crab Petrovich
The fortuneteller crab was caught in Norway, but then transported to Belarus. Petrovich predicted the results of the Ice Hockey World Championship, which was held in Minsk.
A puck was thrown into the aquarium to the animal, on both sides of which the flags of the competing teams were previously glued. Petrovich with a claw threw the puck to the bottom, and the team whose flag was on top was considered the winner.His predictions did not always turn out to be accurate: in the match between France and Canada, the crab bet on the latter and, alas, was mistaken. However, Petrovich predicted matches with Russia accurately.
Photo: FACT INSIDER / YOUTUBE.
Animals are traditionally used to predict the results of sports matches. After the Euro 2008 championship, the octopus Paul made a forecast for the results of the German national team and made a mistake only 2 times out of 14. 6 months after the championship in the aquarium where the octopus lived, a monument was erected to him for his services to German football.
Today, the "Paul case" is continued by 11 animals from different zoos in Russia: several hippos, a rabbit, a deer, a raccoon, a lemur, an otter, the bear Yakov Potapych, the whale Bubble and the goat Bully. No matter how lucky the oracle is, any appearance of animals will delight and add color to the holiday.
The main football festival of the planet unites millions of people from all over the world. Russia for the first time in its history accepts the final part. Thousands of World Cup guests are truly delighted with Russian hospitality.
On the streets of cities here and there spontaneous holidays arise, smiles and hugs of fans from different countries, regardless of the score on the scoreboard. The 21 FIFA World Cup takes place from June 14 to July 15, 2018 in eleven cities of Russia: Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Samara, Kazan, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg. The mascot of the championship was the wolf Zabivaka. The opening ceremony took place at the stadium in Luzhniki on June 14, the event was widely covered in the world press.
The most successful predictor at the current World Cup is the deaf white cat Achilles from the St. Petersburg Hermitage. So far, he has never made a mistake, guessing correctly: with what score Russia will win over Saudi Arabia, Morocco's loss in the game with Iran, Egypt's defeat by Russia with a large score, the outcome of the meeting between the Brazilians and Costa Rica. The last lucky prediction was the result of the game Switzerland-Sweden, where the Swiss won. Before the match, the cat is offered to choose one of two bowls of food, into which the flags of the countries of the upcoming match are stuck. Achilles from St. Petersburg is recognized as the official oracle of the 2018 World Cup.
Each prediction of Achilles is a real official and secular event. In addition to players and ordinary fans, the results are monitored, bookmakers take into account the choice in their bets, journalists prepare the correct articles in advance. Everything that happens around the blind oracle becomes a separate event. And all together this is a holiday of great football.
At the current World Championship, Russia is showing record results for itself. No one in the world expected victories from the hostess of the championship; in the ratings of the national teams, the Russian team was in the lowest positions. Despite poor predictions, the team made it to the final for the first time, confidently defeating 2 opponents in the group stage. The chances of winning the game of 1/8 finals with Spain were close to zero, but competent tactics, physical fitness and strong nerves allowed them to win in the penalty shootout. The national team reached the ¼ final of the 2018 World Cup, where they will play with an equally formidable rival - the Croatian national team. Bookmakers have identified the Croatian national team as the favorite of the upcoming July 7 match.
On reaching the semi-finals of the "checkered" bets are accepted with a coefficient of 2.200, on the victory of the Russians, 1.530. But luck is on the side of Russian footballers today. With minimal chances, everything will help the victory, including the lucky prediction of the cat Achilles. Food bowls are waiting for their oracle.
Achilles the cat is not the only one who makes predictions for the matches of the world championship. One of the famous fortunetellers is the male otter Harry. The animal fights with Achilles for the title of the best oracle. The otter already has three accurate predictions.
Harry predicts mostly matches with the participation of the Russian team. The Oracle accurately predicted victories over Saudi Arabia and Egypt for the hosts of the 2018 World Cup. After that, the predictor correctly predicted the defeat of the Russians in the match against Uruguay. For the game Russia - Croatia, Harry predicts the victory of the guests.
Dipper Aurora made the opposite prediction. A resident of the Krasnoyarsk park believes that Russia will defeat Croatia in the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup. The predator chose a watermelon with Russian symbols.
Lion Lord took the side of the otter. The King of Beasts made his debut as a fortune teller with a comforting forecast for Croatia. The predator chose a bowl of meat, which also contained a small Croatian flag. This is how the lion predicted the victory of Zlatko Dalich's wards in tomorrow's match.
For the first time, Achilles was able to show off his abilities last year at the Confederation Cup. He was chosen by chance from the cats of the Hermitage, as the most calm one. Even then, he was able to earn himself the title of the most accurate animal oracle. Therefore, it was not without his predictions at the 2018 World Cup.
It is worth noting that now the predictor cat continues to occupy a leading position in the number of correctly guessed matches. Achilles predicts as follows: two bowls with identical food are placed in front of him and flags of the playing countries are placed next to them. From which bowl the cat starts eating - that team will win.
Thus, the cat managed to successfully predict the victory of the Russian team in the matches with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in which no one believed. At first, everyone considered these predictions false, because, according to assumptions, Russia should have started losing from the very first match, but the cat Achilles was absolutely right, because the Russians played both matches with a bang. Recall that in the first match Russia won with a score of 5: 0, and in the second with a score of 3: 1.
He also predicted the victory of Iran over the Moroccan national team, and here everything turned out to be correct. Iran was able to beat Morocco with a minimum score of 1: 0, but that does not change the fact that it won. Quite successfully Achilles predicted the victory of Brazil over Costa Rica. That match ended 2-0 in favor of the Brazilians.
The cat's prediction about the match between Nigeria and Argentina was not entirely successful. Achilles prophesied that Argentina would lose to Nigeria and not make it to the playoffs, repeating the fate of the current championship in Germany, which surrendered under the pressure of South Korea. But, Argentina was able to defeat Nigeria with a score of 2: 1 and reach the playoffs. True, it stayed there for a short time and at the very first match of the 1/8 finals with the French national team lost, losing only one goal to the enemy, and ending the fight with a score of 4: 3. Thus, another favorite left the Championship.
But for the match between Spain and Russia, Achilles did not give any predictions, as he was too tired and went to rest until July 3. But there were other animals that predicted the outcome of this match. This is how the dolphin-oracle Wanda predicted the victory of the Russian team, informs the website Ros-Registr. Wanda is famous for being able to correctly predict the outcome of 90% of hockey matches during the Olympic Games. Naturally, no one took the dolphin's "word" seriously, because Spain is among the favorites, and the Russians are already late at the Championship. But, oddly enough, Wanda was right. On July 1, the Russians were able to defeat the Spanish national team, thereby depriving the Championship of the fourth favorite. It is worth noting that the Portuguese national team was eliminated in the match earlier, fighting with Uruguay.
So with each match the situation in the Championship becomes more confusing and more interesting and we can only wait for the predictions and the outcome of the games. It is worth noting that Achilles must predict the matches as early as July 10 and 14.
Sport
Football fever at the 2018 World Cup is in full swing.
Who will become the world champion and who will remain outside the football festival?
Predicting the outcome of matches is another World and European football fun that has become widespread over the past decade.
Who will win the 2018 FIFA World Cup
The outcome of the game, the teams undertook to predict the so-called animal oracles to people.
The process of predicting the match takes place in a very simple form: the oracul animal chooses one of two balls (or any other object) on which the name of the country is written or the flag of the participating country is depicted.
Thus, by its choice, the oracle "predicts" the victory of this or that team.
Octopus Paul
Recall that the tradition of predicting matches in a similar way arose at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Thanks to his accurate predictions, the German octopus Paul then became a real sensation and a world celebrity.
Then the tradition of predicting the outcome of matches was continued by other animals.
Animal oracles 2018
The main oracle of the 2018 World Cup was a white cat named Achilles, who lives in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
What is known about this animal?
Achilles is a resident of the city of St. Petersburg, he is about 2.5 years old. The animal is named after one of the characters in ancient Greek mythology. Achilles continued the path of his parents: he serves in the State Hermitage Museum.
The animal serves honestly and regularly does its job: it protects the masterpieces of world culture from rodents. The cat is not purebred, but beautiful, prone to overweight, so the Hermitage employees carefully monitor its diet and periodically put the cat on a diet.
According to the museum staff, Achilles is a deaf cat, but it is his deafness that contributes to the development of the ability of clairvoyance. The cat really has a very keen instinct.
In addition, due to his deafness, Achilles is not distracted by extraneous sounds and does not experience additional stress when he is filmed on cameras by endless paparazzi and simple curious.
“This happens quite often: when you are missing something, it is compensated by something else,” says Maria Haltunen, Deputy Director of the Hermitage and press secretary of the watch cats. "That's why he can be safely called a good oracle."
A deaf cat predicts victory for one of the teams by choosing a bowl of food (a standard technique used by oracles in this world championship).
What the cat Achilles predicted
The "career" of the Hermitage cat looks like this:
Confederations Cup matches - 2017 (3 correct predictions out of 4), as for the 2018 World Cup, the cat guessed 4 out of 5 matches. Thus, on July 1, 2018, Achilles accurately predicted 7 out of 9 matches, its efficiency is 78 percent.
But Achilles is far from the only animal that guesses the outcome of matches with amazing accuracy. Only in Russia there are at least a dozen such predictors.
So, the following animals were included in the list of so-called oracles: the bear Yakov Potapych from Moscow, the female tapir Cleopatra from Nizhny Novgorod, the lemur Spartak from Yekaterinburg, the Sochi otter Harry, the goat Zabiyaka from Samara.
Yakov Potapych's predictions
Bear Yakov Potapych is a resident of the capital and is rightfully considered a Muscovite.
Yakov Potapych was not mistaken, predicting the victory of the Russian national team in the matches with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, he also guessed a draw in the match of such giants of world football as Portugal and Spain. In addition, the clubfoot predicted a draw in the Argentina-Iceland match.
By the way, it was Potapych who so amused many guests of the capital at the very beginning of the World Cup, when he appeared before them in the form of his national team. This cheerful fortuneteller is also an unspoken symbol of Russia.
Tapir Cleopatra
And in the Nizhny Novgorod zoo lives a female tapir named Cleopatra. She has long become a favorite of both city residents and visitors. The animal is very sociable, easily makes contact, and more recently it also makes predictions for the games that take place in its hometown of Nizhny Novgorod.
It should be noted that Cleopatra guessed exactly the outcome of three matches in a row, having correctly identified the winner. However, for the fourth time, the animal was mistaken and before the Argentina-Croatia match, it chose a bowl with the Argentine flag depicted on it.
With her choice, Cleopatra made people understand that she was betting on the South Americans, but everything did not go according to this scenario: the game ended with a score of 0: 3 in favor of the Croats.
Lemur Spartak
A lemur named Spartak, who lives in the Yekaterinburg zoo, also makes predictions for the 2018 World Cup matches.
Spartak is offered a choice of two plates with delicacies - banana or dates. The outcome of the match depends on what the lemur prefers.
Lemur has already guessed the outcome of several matches, including the victory of the Russian national team over Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But in the Russia-Spain match, Spartak behaved unpatriotic, predicting victory for the Spaniards.
As we all already know, the Russian national team beat the legendary Red Fury in a penalty shootout. Consequently, the animal was mistaken in its prediction.
Otter Harry
The fortune-teller Harry lives in sunny Sochi, the animal also guesses the outcome of the games at the 2018 World Cup.
It is worth noting that Harry is one of the five oracle animals who almost always correctly guess the results of matches.
Harry accurately predicted the defeat of the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the games with Russia, she also pointed out that the Russians will lose to the Uruguayans.
But in predicting the match between Spain and Russia, the otter also behaved unpatriotic. Two balls were thrown into the pool filled with water: with the images of the flags of both countries. The otter walked purposefully towards the ball with the Spanish flag.
Thus, the otter predicted defeat for her compatriots, and, as it turned out, was mistaken in her predictions. The Russian national team won the game against the Spaniards.
Goat Bully
Goat Bully, living in the Samara zoo, also gives very accurate predictions regarding the matches of the 2018 World Cup.
The animal guessed not only the matches that took place in her hometown of Samara, but also the rest of the games that were held in other cities of Russia.
But the last prediction of the goat turned out to be wrong. The bully made it clear that the Mexican national team will beat Brazil in one-eighth final. However, the miracle did not happen: the Brazilians are in the quarter finals, and the Mexicans are packing their bags and going home. The goat made a mistake in its forecast.
Dolphin predicted the match
And, of course, we must pay tribute to the dolphin with the prophetic name Wanda. The mammal lives in the Great Sochi Dolphinarium and also makes its predictions.
This is the only animal from the list of oracles that predicted a sensational victory for the Russian national team in a difficult game with the Spaniards. Russian fans immediately dubbed the dolphin Wanda the most patriotic oracle of this World Championship.
Only he believed that our footballers were able to defeat one of the strongest football teams of the Old World.
Octopus Paul and his predictions for the 2010 World Cup set a new trend: now every major football tournament is not complete without psychic animals predicting the outcome of upcoming matches. For example, during the Russian World Cup, in the domestic open spaces, they stick to completely different animals and even make up their rating of usefulness.
1. Achilles the cat
The cat Achilles leads the top three. While the animal from the cultural capital gives out the best football expertise, the tailed beasts guessed the results of all four meetings that were entrusted to him. He predicted the winners in the matches Russia - Saudi Arabia, Iran - Morocco, Russia - Egypt and Brazil - Costa Rica.
A little about the bohemian life of a cat: Achilles lives in the Hermitage. Usually the cat is trusted with forecasts of meetings at the St. Petersburg Arena, so his schedule is already known - Achilles will try to strengthen his leadership before the next games in the city on the Neva. And today the furry beast sent Argentina home in advance: in his opinion, the evening match against Nigeria "albiseleste" will lose.
The procedure for choosing the winner itself is standard - two bowls with the flags of the participants in the match are placed near the cat, where the same food is poured. Whose bowl Achilles chooses will be the winner.
Are you afraid that the flayers have tortured the beast with their unhealthy love of predictions and eternal camera flashes? Do not rush to call the animal help service: back in 2017, the cat was chosen as the official (!) Oracle of the Confederations Cup, as Achilles is a stress-resistant and human-oriented animal.
At the end of May, the cat was not only "appointed" the oracle of the World Cup, but also given him a "uniform" (overalls) of the Russian national team with number 9 - a symbol of nine feline lives. The founder of the Cat Museum and the curator of cats from the Hermitage, Anna Kondratyeva, assures that the fortuneteller's behavior does not speak of his hatred of such clothes.
2. Tapir Cleopatra
The most exotic predictor of the Russian World Cup has southern roots. The tapir-like family comes from the regions of Central, South America and Southeast Asia, but adapts to life in any country - as long as the temperature is warm.
So, Cleopatra was settled in the Nizhny Novgorod zoo "Limpopo" and created all the necessary conditions for her. As in the case of other oracles, one of the important criteria for future "work" was the absence of fear of people. This is the plus of Klepa - she fell in love with visitors to the zoo due to her sociability, contact with humans. And the tapir makes its choice between two plastic containers next to walking ducks, so it is difficult to believe in the aggressiveness of the animal.
So far, Cleopatra has shot 3 out of 4: she believed in Russia's victory over Egypt, and also correctly predicted victories in the Nizhny Novgorod matches Sweden - South Korea and England - Panama. But the national team from a possible historical tapir continent destroyed its championship move: the Argentines burned down Croatia, and the animal was betting on the 2014 world vice-champions. So far, this is the only mistake of the beast.
3. Bear Yakov Potapych
A bear from Moscow managed to become a TV star - on the air of the Good Morning program on Channel One, the clubfoot came, saw and won, guessing the winner in the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
After that, he became a staff predictor of the First, making predictions on a miniature football field laid out in Gorky Park. Like his colleague Achilles, the bear is dressed up in a football uniform. Only he makes a prediction with the help of the ball - Yakov Potpych takes it in his paws and throws it into one of the three barrels.
While the bear predicted the victory of Russia over Saudi Arabia, a draw for Portugal and Spain, and even bet on the loss of points from Argentina in the game against Iceland. The risk was justified - the bet passed. But excessive faith in Russia and Spain did not help him - he confidently threw the ball into the barrels with the name of the host country of the World Cup before the meeting with Uruguay, and voted for Furia Rohu in the game against Morocco.
Text: Dmitry Temnikov
Photo: Global Look Press
