Striker Lukas Podolski feels Wednesday's World Cup semi-final against Spain is a chance for Germany to avenge their Euro 2008 final defeat.

"We still think about that defeat and it still hurts," said Podolski, as cited by BBC. "We want revenge for 2008.

"When you are in a final you want to win. Now we want to reach the final and we'll do all we can to achieve that."

Beating the Germans in the Euro 2008 final did much to shed Spain's reputation as an international underachiever. While Spain's side still contains many of the players from their successful Euro 2008 campaign, Germany are much changed in both personnel and style.

Germany coach Joachim Loew believes his side has improved, telling reporters: "Two years later for us there are many changes while the Spaniards are similar.

"We have made progress in the style of football we play and the results we get.

"We were not as consistent and our quality was not as good. Now our combination is much better as is our flowing game."

However, Loew is not naive to the threat posed by Spain, a team he has described as possessing a number of players at the level of Argentina's World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi.

"Spain remain the natural World Cup favourites," the Germany coach reflected.

"They not only have one Messi, but they have several Messis - they have a whole range of players that can win a game.

"They are a team that make very few mistakes, so we will have to be very watchful against them."