‘Psychic’ elephant predicts Germany to beat England at Euro 2020

The 42-year-old Yashoda correctly guessed that Germany would lose their tournament opener to France, beat Portugal and then draw against Hungary in the group stage.

Yashoda, Hamburg Hagenbeck Zoo’s #EURO2020-predicting elephant has correctly predicted all of Germany’s matches so far…

For #GER v #HUN, the footballing heavyweight has predicted Germany to draw against Hungary.

How very diplomatic of her! #GERHUN pic.twitter.com/iGa6gXnjrs

— German Embassy London (@GermanEmbassy) June 23, 2021

She pulled the German flag rather than the English one out of a wicker basket at Hagenbeck Zoo to the delight of many German fans who had turned up to see her.

“I guess we can all live with that,” said zookeeper Michael Schmidt.

Major football tournaments often attract supposed soothsaying animals with varying degrees of success.

During the 2010 World Cup, Paul the Octopus accurately predicted all seven games the German team played at the tournament.

While the mailbox gets bombarded with data predictions of #EURO2020, maths and computer models… Just bring back Octopus Paul please. 🐙 pic.twitter.com/0IJArbtfzi

— Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) June 25, 2021

Unsurprisingly, Paul’s prediction that Spain would beat Germany at the semi-final drew the ire of many Germans, who called for him to be eaten after the game, prompting Spain’s prime minister at the time to offer “official state protection” for the creature.

This might have sealed the deal for the Spaniards who went on to win the tournament, just as Paul had predicted.

Some social media users however have found other creative ways to predict scores.

One video that has gone viral shows 24 cars, representing the number of teams taking part in the tournament, racing on a treadmill.

The final, according to this rather bizarre technique, shows Germany and France battling it out after all the other cars veered off course.