World Cup 2018: 'Psychic octopus' chopped up and eaten before final 16, despite correctly predicting every group stage result

Fortune-telling mollusc made into seafood after accurately tipping results of Japan team's opening three matches

An octopus that correctly predicted the results of all Japan’s World Cup group stage games was turned into seafood before the team had even kicked a ball in the knockout round of the tournament.

Rabio the octopus had become the latest animal to be heralded with football fortune-telling powers after it was caught by fisherman in the town of Obira, in Hokkaido, on the day of the Samurai Blues’ opening game against Colombia.

Placed in a plastic pool and encouraged to pick one of three boxes representing a win, loss, or draw for the national team, the mollusc correctly tipped them to beat the South American side in their first match.

It went on to rack up a perfect record by also predicting Japan’s draw with Senegal and defeat to Poland as they narrowly qualified as runners-up in Group H.

However, much like defending champions Germany, Rabio’s presence will be absent from the knockout rounds of the tournament.

Kimio Abe, who caught the animal, revealed it had since been taken to market, where it was sold and turned into seafood.

The fisherman said he would be using a new octopus, Rabio Jr, to predict Japan’s results for the rest of the World Cup.

And, in a tournament already full of upsets, Rabio Jr believes another could be on the cards after it tipped the national team to defeat much-fancied Belgium in their round of 16 tie on Monday.

“I'm glad that all the forecasts turned out correct and Japan moved on to the knockout stage,” Mr Abe told Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

“I hope Rabio's successor will accurately tip the results of all games and Japan will win the World Cup.”

Rabio is not the only octopus to have been blessed with the supposed psychic power of predicting international football matches.

In 2010, Paul, an octopus at an aquarium in Oberhausen, correctly predicted all of Germany’s games during the World Cup in South Africa, as well as picking winners Spain to beat the Netherlands in the final.

Achilles, a cat living at St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, tipped Russia to win the opening game of this year’s tournament against Saudi Arabia.

The feline garnered a reputation as a fortune-teller during last year’s Confederations Cup for predicting the results of matches by choosing one of two plates of food marked with a flag.