Franz Beckenbauer believes Germanny’s run to the World Cup final was an aberration and suggested the disappointing performance against Lithania at the weekend, was a fairer refelction of the team’s abilities.

Germany, who surprised observers with their strong showing in Korea/Japan, came back to earth with a bump following Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Lithuania, a side ranked 106th in the world.

Beckenbauer, captain and coach of West German teams that won the World Cup in 1974 and 1990, described the display as inexcusable.

‘Lithuania simply must be beaten at home,” Beckenbauer said.

“There can be no discussion about that. No excuses. You have to put them under pressure and not stop working after 15 minutes.

“We recall our expectations before the World Cup – we were modest and would have been happy to have reached the quarter-finals,” Beckenbauer wrote in a column for Bild newspaper on Monday.

“And suddenly the German team enthralled us all with a great tournament and ended up with the title as runners-up to the world champions. Now we see that the World Cup was an aberration.”

“It hurts to squander a victory like that,” he added.

“I can hardly imagine we won’t win our group at the end ofthe day. But even though Scotland may not have the greatest talent, they can fight, fight, fight.

“If our players don’t adopt this attitude, we’ll often trip over teams like Lithuania.”