THOMAS MUELLER knows better than to imagine Germany will come by victory over Argentina as easily as they did against Brazil.

"I don't know what kind of a game the final will be but I don't expect it to be 5-0 at half-time," the Bayern Munich forward said, referring to the 7-1 semi-final victory. "It would be nice but it's probably going to be tight like against Algeria or France."

Mueller confirmed the German players agreed during the interval to attempt not to embarrass Brazil in the second half. That allowed Germany to conserve energy, while Argentina played a day later and half an hour longer before defeating the Netherlands.

However, their captain, Philipp Lahm, believes it is experience that will prove crucial. "Many of us have been involved in big games at club level," he said. "Whether they were positive or negative is not important.

"When you go through our squad, you'll see we have that experience, in Champions League finals or DFB-Pokal finals and it's certainly an advantage for us."