Yvonne the Cow – in the footsteps of Paul the Octopus?

No football tournament is complete these days with out a forecaster from the animal kingdom and a German cow is currently leading a packed field to fill the post for Euro 2012.

Yvonne found fame after going on the run for three months last year to avoid the slaughterhouse. What better qualification could you need for predicting Portugal will beat Germany on Saturday?

The founder of the animal sanctuary where Yvonne now lives believes it is possible she has a special gift to pick the right team by intuition.

The prediction procedure is standard: the cow is offered two feeding troughs, each with a flag of the teams playing. Aufhauser says when she chose to feed from the trough with the Portuguese flag on it she was not thinking of football.

Predicting a defeat for the Mannschaft in their opening match may not endear Yvonne to home fans. But Aufhauser still has faith in his team.

“We can only hope that this ultimately turns out positively for Germany,” he said. “Maybe they will indeed initially lose and then the famous bashing starts before they emerge as the winner of the Euro 2012.”

The prediction craze started with Paul the Octopus and the 2010 World Cup. He correctly predicted the results of all of Germany’s matches.

This time a veritable menagerie is lining up to try to do the same, from Swiss rabbits to Polish elephants and even a flock of seagulls.

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