Mexico's Grand Warlock says team will reach World Cup quarters

Mexico City, June 14 (IANS) Mexico's Brujo Mayor (Grand Warlock) has predicted that his country's national football team will reach the quarter-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

"I decree, as a Mexican, that the national team will win the first four matches and reach a very good place," Antonio Vazquez Alba intoned on Wednesday during a ritual to wish 'El Tri' good luck, reports EFE news agency.

Vazquez Alba said that although Mexico would not win the tournament, the team would start off on the right foot in their opening match on Sunday against defending champions Germany.

They would then head straight to the quarter finals, something Mexico has done on only one previous occasion, when the Aztec nation hosted the World Cup in 1986.

More than offering predictions, the event organized by the Brujo Mayor sought to wish the national team good luck.

"We ask for unification. We call it to decree in metaphysics, that is, when you keep thinking about something and ask for it to come true, in this case for the national team to win," he said.

Vazquez Alba's ritual was carried out in a ceremonial center in Mexico City with objects symbolizing the four elements, death, strength, money and power.

"We have to send lots of love to our national team," the Brujo Mayor said.