Leon the cat makes his
semi-final predictions

by Alex Claridge

Mystic mog Leon is forecasting the outsiders to win the
Euro 2012 semi-finals.

The pedigree Tonkinese from Canterbury - who so far has a 90 per
cent success rate in his predictions - reckons Portugal will
beat tournament favourites Spain tonight.

And he is going for Italy to overcome the strong Germany side in
the second semi-final tomorrow.

Bookmakers are offering odds of 15-1 if these two results come
in.

But owner Ted Phillips, a 45-year-old caterer from Upper Chantry
Lane, suspects Leon may be proved right again.

He said: "Well, he's going completely against what the form
guide is telling us.

"But it's difficult to quibble with when he's done so well so far
in the tournament.

"And he's certainly doing better than The Sun's llama who has
only one right out of four - he even predicted Italy to beat
England."

Leon has made his previous forecasts by choosing to eat from
bowls of food marked with the names of teams on them.

Ted has then bet £5 on whatever team's bowl he ate from first
and is so far more than £120 up with Leon getting nine out of 10
results right.

He has so far only failed to get the result of the Holland
versus Germany group match correct - predicting a draw when the
Germans won.

For the semi-final, Ted changed the way Leon made his
forecasts.

He dangled pieces of rump steak - bought at upscale Canterbury
grocer The Goods Shed - from string attached to a bamboo stick over
slates with each team's flags on them.

Whichever piece Leon tapped first was marked as his
prediction.

Ted added: "We thought this would be a new way to see what he
goes for and I too have a feeling that Leon will be right
again."

Leon even has his own Twitter account and will be predicting the
outcomes of future sporting events. He can be followed on
@psychicleon.