Running right alongside Brazil 2014, this is my day-by-day story of how Spain won the last World Cup. You can catch up on previous posts.
These stories are from Spain: The Inside Story of La Roja’s Historic Treble, by Graham Hunter
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Two Days until the World Cup semi-final
The further this bunch go, the more relaxed they are. Perhaps the joie de vivre which settles on Spain’s Potchefstroom retreat stems from an octopus named Paul. Pulpo Paul in Spanish.
England had woken up to the oracle powers of the Octopus Vulgaris much earlier in the tournament thanks to the fact that the star pupil of the Oberhausen Aquarium, although a native of Weymouth, tipped Germany to beat England in the last 16.
The deal is that Paul’s keeper places him in a tank which has two see-through plastic boxes with a piece of food in each. Each box is decorated with a flag of one of the two nations about to play. Television stations around the world love it.
So far at this tournament, Pulpo Paul (who made a damn good job of Euro 2008 in tipping four of Germany’s six matches correctly) has got every single German result right, including a shock defeat by Serbia in the group stages.
Ahead of the semi-final, Pulpo Paul plumps for La Roja.