Is there anyone who doesn't know Paul the Octopus?
Is there anyone who doesn't know Paul the Octopus? The global phenomenon who predicted the right winner of eight World Cup matches two years ago has become a hard act to follow, as most animal soothsayers have struggled so far to predict the right winners during the ongoing Euro Cup. Citta the Elephant, Funtik the Pig, Yvonne the Cow, Fred the Ferret and a whole host of others animal soothsayers have tried to take over the mantle from Paul, but most of them have failed in their efforts. Sissi the Munich sausage dog and another octopus called Rosi from Rosenheim were both forced into early retirement after wrongly predicting that Bayern Munich would beat Chelsea for the Champions League title last month.
Just like Sissi and Rosi struggled with their predictions, the Euro clairvoyants, at least those belonging to the animal kingdom have found the going tough this summer.
Fred the Ferret, who lives in the Kharkiv Zoo, is the host city Ukraine's answer to Paul the Octopus.
Fred's entry into the world of football predictions has been average as he started off by predicting a draw between co-hosts Poland and Greece, which proved to be correct.
The ferret predicted the same result for the game between Russia and the Czech Republic, which was totally off the mark as Russia were rampant in their 4-1 victory.
Fred bounced back strongly though as he correctly predicted that Germany would beat Portugal and Denmark would upset the Netherlands. Thus, after just two days, he has already been wrong once unlike the all-knowing Paul the Octopus.
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