Germany’s 1990 World Cup winner Thomas Berthold has downplayed their favourites tag, placing Brazil, France and Spain ahead of them for this summer’s showpiece.

The defending champions kick-start their defence against Mexico on June 17 with Joachim Low’s side tipped as one of the nations to reign supreme and become the first country to win back-to-back titles since Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

But Berthold, who is the 10^th most-capped German at the three World Cups he’s played in, believes his nation are not the clear favourites.

“When you look back through the history of the World Cup, three nations – Brazil, Italy and us – have won 13 titles between them. I don’t think any other team has reached the semi-finals as often as Germany,” he told FIFA.com

“And whenever you reach the last four, there are many factors that you can’t account for, particularly when you go toe-to-toe with other top sides.

“We are not the clear favourites. France, Brazil and Spain are all ahead of us and Argentina are more or less the dark horses of the tournament.”

Germany have also been drawn alongside Korea Republic and Sweden and Berthold believes they must top Group F. “They will need to grit their teeth and focus on the knockout stages. They’ll need to give it their all in the group, and after that it’s a matter of ‘go big or go home’.”