As has been his standard routine throughout the tournament, he was presented with kibble in two bowls - one marked with a Belgian flag, one marked with a French one. He chose the black, yellow and red tricolour.

Belgium take on 1998 winners France at the St. Petersburg Stadium at 4:00am tomorrow.

Achilles, who was also on match-predicting duty during the Confederations Cup last year, has already made six predictions for the World Cup games, with a two-out-of-three success rate.

He correctly predicted Russia's wins over Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Iran's victory over Morocco and Brazil's defeat of Costa Rica.

His mistakes were choosing Nigeria to beat Argentina in the group stage and Switzerland to beat Sweden in the Round of 16.

According to his handlers, Achilles was chosen as the World Cup animal oracle for being the most stress-resistant and human-oriented of about 50 cats that live at the Hermitage Museum of arts and culture in St. Petersburg.