Pretoria - German livewire striker, Miroslav Klose, says his team is ready to face Argentina in their quarter-final encounter at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, on Saturday.
Four years ago, when the two teams clashed in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Germany beat Argentina 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out after a tense quarter-final match which ended 1-1 after extra time.
"We know that the Argentinean's will look to avenge their 2006 defeat, but we are ready to upset them again. We are ready to take them head-on," he said.
The Poland born striker said they are not intimidated by world class players such as Lionel Messi and Tevez.
"We believe in ourselves and we always refuse to be intimidated by individual players of our opponents and that is why we were able to beat England because their team is composed of great players," he said.
Klose, who makes a stellar combination with Polish teammate, Lukas Podolski, said the Argentine's might have world-class players, but they need to play as a team if they are to beat them.
"The secret behind our success is that we are a youth team, full of confidence and play as a unit. All the players in our camp want to wear the national team's jersey and make our nation proud," he said.
Asked if his national team will reach the finals, the 1.82 striker said: "A team that wants to become the World Champions should defeat all its opponents and I think at this tournament, we've already proven this."
Midfielder Sami Khedira said all the players at the camp were fully aware that Messi is a real threat, but they will make every effort to deny him goal-scoring opportunities.
"He is such a great player who always makes things difficult for the opponents. He is an unstoppable player who cannot be stopped by one player, but needs a collective team effort.
"We are fully aware that in this World Cup he is not scoring goals, but his team is getting good results because of his brilliant moves with the ball which we won't allow him to do during our encounter," he said.
Khedira, who described the spirit as very high at the camp said, should their Saturday fixture become similar to the 2006 match, they will beat Argentina on penalty shoot-outs.
"Our goal keeper trainer is working very hard in preparing our goal keepers to make position and adjust themselves during the penalty shoot-out. We are ready for this encounter," he said.
Germany advanced to the quarter-finals after they hammered England 4-1, while Argentina progressed to the last eight after defeating Mexico 3-1.
Klose came to international prominence at the 2002 World Cup in Korea-Japan.
He scored five headed goals for the German national team, finishing joint second highest goal scorer along with Rivaldo. This tally included a hat trick in Germany's 8-nil hammering of Saudi Arabia.
On 13 June, Klose scored the second goal against Australia in their opening group game, a 4-nil victory.
The goal made him only four goals away from equaling the record number of goals scored in World Cup history, currently held by Ronaldo.
Klose was given a red card in the 36th minute after receiving his second of two cautions in Germany's second first-round game, against Serbia which they lost 1-nil.
Klose opened the scoring in the round of 16 match against England on 27 June with his 12th World Cup goal, equaling Pele for 4th on the all time list, and also notching up his 50th International goal in his 99th International game
