爱思英语编者按：世界杯最后一夜，也是世界杯最惨烈的一战，在经历了14张黄牌1张红牌和加时赛之后，西班牙在南非约翰内斯堡书写了历史。1：0，他们将荷兰“无冕之王”的头衔延续了下去，这一刻，西班牙队的世界最高身价头衔彻底得到印证，他们成为了世界杯新王！这是世界杯历史上第8支冠军球队。而这个结果，也让“章鱼哥”保罗在本届世界杯上的预测成功率定格在100%。当卡西利亚斯把大力神杯高高举过头顶，整个南非，整个西班牙，整个世界都醉了。

He faced his greatest challenge yet ahead of tonight's World Cup final.

But Paul the 'oracle octopus' has proved once and for all that he doesn't crack under pressure by correctly predicting Spain to win the tournament.

Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0 in the second half of extra time in an ill-tempered match in the Soccer City stadium outside Johannesburg.

The mystic mollusc correctly selected Germany to win the third place play-off against Uruguay, and his national team duly obliged after winning 3-2 in Port Elizabeth.

Viva Espana! Paul the octopus chose Spain over the Netherlands as the 2010 World Cup champions today

Counter-prediction: Mani the 'psychic parakeet' picks Holland in the Netherlands today as owner M Muniyappan looked on

But the knowledgable octopus has been issued with a challenge from an unexpected quarter - Mani, Singapore's psychic parakeet.

Mani - who has, according to his owner, predicted the last five games of the tournament correctly - had thrown the gauntlet down to Paul by - incorrectly - predicting that Holland will triumph on Sunday instead.

Germans were torn in two at the news. Half would still have wanting to roast Paul with garlic after he predicted - correctly - that their team would lose to Spain at the semi-final.

While the other half hoped that Paul - who is, after all, a German octopus - would triumph against Mani, giving them some share in the glory of the World Cup final.

Das ist wunderbar: Great news for Germany as Paul backs them to finish third

Paul was born in Weymouth in 2006 but now resides in Germany's Oberhausen's Sea Life Aquarium.

He predicts matches by choosing to eat a mussel from boxes emblazoned with the flags of the German team and its rivals.

In the group stages, he correctly predicted German victories over Australia and Ghana and the country's loss to Serbia.

England and Argentina then produced spineless performances in the next two rounds to ensure that Paul's predictions that Germany would win came to pass. Then came Germany's defeat to Spain.

Wrong: Germany supporters hold up a banner referring to Paul the octopus at Wednesday's match with Spain. The 0-1 result was successfully predicted by Paul

Paul became an international sensation - with media around the world today publishing his prediction that Spain will win the final.

Then, along came Mani.

Earlier today the 13-year-old parakeet made his own World Cup prediction - grabbing a card in his beak bearing the flag of the Netherlands.

Mani has become a local celebrity after its owner, M Muniyappan, claimed Mani accurately forecast the World Cup's four quarter-final games and Spain's semi-final victory over Germany.

'He's a special bird,' Muniyappan said.

Muniyappan, an 80-year-old fortune-teller, said Mani has helped him predict the future for five years at a table in front of a restaurant in the Little India neighbourhood.

But this year's World Cup is the first time the parakeet has attempted to forecast the outcome of sports competitions.
'People usually want help picking the lottery numbers, or when to get married,' said Muniyappan, who was born in India and moved to Singapore in 1953.

'Then gamblers started asking about the World Cup.'

Muniyappan said about 30 people a day now pay for his psychic powers, up from about 10 a day before Mani shot to fame.

Paul first started predicting matches during the 2008 European Championships, when four out of his six choices were correct.
Mathematicians have found the probability of guessing the correct result six times consecutively is less than 0.5 per cent, or 216 to 1.

Paul's soothsaying has turned him into a star in Germany. But he may well prove to be the victim of his own success.

Right sign: A Spain fan (right) holds up a banner reading 'Germans, the Octopus' prediction will come true'

After Argentina lost to Germany in the quarter-final, the Argentines threatened to capture, kill him and serve him with potatoes.

Even some Germans have turned against their eight-legged oracle, suggesting Oberhausen restaurants should soon offer grilled octopus on their menus.

And he'll need to cash in on his success soon. At the age of four Paul is unusually old for an octopus, which, in the wild, don't usually live much past two years.

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See video of Paul picking Spain
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