The Mir payment system reportedly jumped the gun on Friday to congratulate Russia for winning its World Cup game against Croatia, a full day before the start of the match.
“We’re in the semifinals! It’s unbelievable, but we knew that’s what was going to happen!” Mir wrote in an ad posted on the Vkontakte social media network.
The company later pulled the ad, which it said had been a prediction made by its social media management team.
Russia lost the game on Saturday in a penalty shootout.
In a continuation of its fanciful prediction, the company created a spoof landing page with the Sports.ru website, filled with headlines that envision what would have happened if Russia had actually won the game, including: “Vladimir Putin congratulates Russia on its victory,” “Will we beat England?” and “I don’t know how we did it.”
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