MOSCOW: Russia’s football team has failed to chalk up a single victory in eight months but things could be about to improve – according to a supposedly clairvoyant cat who predicted a win for the side in the first World Cup match. Achilles, a deaf white cat who is the official animal soothsayer for the tournament, on Wednesday chose a bowl of food bearing the host’s flag rather than that of Saudi Arabia, who Russia will face on Thursday evening. The blue-eyed feline is usually part of a team of dozens of cats that guard Saint Petersburg´s Hermitage museum from rodents, but has taken on a new role for the football event. “Achilles is already used to the public and shouldn´t be too stressed,” said vet Anna Kondratyeva, who manages the animals. The cat follows in the tentacle-prints of Paul the Octopus who became a star in 2010 after predicting winners for that year’s World Cup by choosing one out of two boxes containing food. Others have made a play to be the next Paul – including Swiss guinea pig Madame Shiva in 2014 and British Piranha Pele – but none quite had the mollusc’s foresight. Published in Daily Times, June 14th 2018.