``I'm not saying we will become world champions but I think we can,'' said coach Berti Vogts. ``Other teams have more talent than we have but we could still beat them.''

Winning against teams who play better soccer has always been a German specialty, as they demonstrated yet again on their way to winning the 1996 European Championship in England.

After an unconvincing World Cup qualifying campaign, Vogts was clearly encouraged by the march friendly against Brazil in Stuttgart, despite the fact that the South Americans won 2-1.

``I believe we're heading in the right direction,'' he said after watching Ronaldo's last-minute effort clinch victory for the World Cup holders.

That defeat ended an unbeaten run of 22 matches dating back to June 1996, when Germany lost 1-0 to France on the same Stuttgart pitch.

Vogts often refers to thatmatch as his ``favourite defeat'' as only weeks later Germany tamed the Czech Republic at Wembley in the European Championship final.

Before the Brazil match, Vogts was worried. His team's shaky run in qualifying had raised the spectre of 1994, when at the World Cup finals at the United States, Germany lost in humiliating fashion to Bulgaria in the quarter-finals.

Apart from Yugoslavia, Germany's opponents in Group F in France are Iran and the United States -- just the sort of unassuming opponents who posed problems in the qualifying round.

Bierhoff, remembered for scoring both goals in his team's 2-1 win in the Euro '96 final, lived up to his reputation as Germany's saviour throughout the qualifying ties.

In Belfast against Northern Ireland, the Udinese forward, who has hit over 20 goals in Series A this season, scored three times in seven minutes -- the fastest hat-trick in German international history -- to turn a 1-0 deficit into precious 3-1 win. Bayer Leverkusen's diminutive Ulf Kirsten, set tobecome the Bundesliga's most prolific marksman for the second season in succession, is another striker to watch, and then, of course, there is Juergen Klinsmann.

The 33-year-old with over 100 caps for Germany is eager to retire from international soccer in style.

``The World Cup in France will be, I hope, five fascinating weeks culminating with the final,'' he said.

Vogts admitted recently that if Klinsmann's poor form meant he did not merit a place, he would have to drop him and was as good as his word in the 1-0 friendly victory over Nigeria on April 22.

Klinsmann is one of several players over 30 in a German side which lacks young talent and Vogts is under particular pressure to call up Borussia Dortmund's 21-year-old mid-fielder Lars Ricken, who earned his first two caps this season.

Bayern Munich mid-fielder Dietmar Hamann and Bayer Leverkusen defender Christian Woerns are also being touted.

However, Vogts is certain to stick for the most part with the experience of players like AndreasKoepke, Juergen Kohler, Andreas Moeller and Thomas Haessler.

They have seen it all before, and pretty or not, Germany will remain an opponent to be avoided in France. As Beckenbauer warned: ``We are strong enough to beat anybody.''