A football-mad Brit has been using bangers and mash to predict World Cup 2026 results - and his latest forecast has England tipped to beat Croatia in their opening clash
Football nut Luke Symons has turned to a bowl of bangers and mash to predict World Cup results - and he reckons England are about to smash Croatia.
With Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions kicking off their tournament today, the superfan believes the answer to football's biggest questions lies at the bottom of a dinner plate.
The 35-year-old has turned Britain's favourite comfort food into a bizarre psychic prediction machine , using sausages to forecast match results.
And remarkably, his weird-but-wonderful method is actually working, racking up a massive 45 per cent success rate across the first 20 matches of the tournament being held in the US, Canada and Mexico.
To get his culinary forecasts, Luke places two national flags on either side of a mountain of mashed potato. He then drops a sausage right into the middle of the bowl, and whichever team the banger points toward is tipped for glory.
Luke, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, said: "Many take it as solid gambling advice - I don't recommend. France are strong favourites but I must side with England and, if the sausages align, we should be in for a good chance."
For England's opening clash against Croatia at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the sausage landed pointing directly at the St George's Cross. The prediction was shared on Luke's social media page, aptly named The Mash Man.
Luke said: "If I look at the shape and angle of the sausage, it looks like a close game with England edging it. I'd say a 2-1 win. Goals from Kane and Rashford."
The unusual idea began as a joke among friends. Luke, who works in tech support, is known in his friendship group as "The Mash Man" because of his love for bangers and mash.
He said: "It started as an inside joke between friends. We were randomly talking about what we used to have for lunch at school and I said I favoured Mash.
"In typical lad fashion, they didn't drop it and started calling me Mash boy/man and that I should start my own TikTok account of me making mash.
"I didn't back down. I started an account which got zero views but then the Euro 2024 came around and the idea came to me. The videos did well so I said I'll do it for the World Cup 2026. And here we are."
Despite sounding completely bonkers, Luke's sausage-powered forecasting system has correctly predicted around 45 per cent of matches so far. Among its successes was correctly backing Saudi Arabia to claim a surprise draw against Uruguay.
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