Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann believes the World Cup hosts have started to earn some respect after winning three games out of three to top Group A.

Many pundits had doubted Jurgen Klinsmann's side had the quality to make progress to the latter stages, but Arsenal custodian Lehmann is upbeat after victories over Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador.

Lehmann said: "The respect is back and the tournament team myth is alive. We are quite confident and we know what we can do.

"We are always capable of playing at a very high level.

"Other teams could be more skilful or whatever, but sometimes they don't know how to perform, unlike us Germans - we know about our abilities and we want to perform at the highest level.

"So far we have created a new spirit, a new national sprit and a new wave. We want to ride a little bit longer on that wave.

"The tournament could end on Saturday for us, but we will try to extend that.

"It is the start of the knockout phase and some players have never had that before in their lives.

"So we will see how they will get on with that. Mentally we are quite strong, but now it is a completely new competition."