Germany have been thrashed 4-1 by a rampant Italy in a World Cup warm-up friendly in Florence, leaving German captain Michael Ballack promising, “You will see a different Germany in Dortmund.”

Two goals in the first seven minutes from Alberto Gilardino and Luca Toni put Marcello Lippi’s Italy in control, and they never took their foot of the pedal.

The Azzurri were rampant throughout, completely outplaying the lacklustre Germans, and could have been further ahead before Daniele De Rossi's header made it 3-0.

Juventus star striker Alessandro Del Piero scored the fourth, before Chelsea defender Robert Huth scored a late consolation goal for Germany.

“Italy gave us a lesson today,” said Germany coach Jürgen Klinsmann after the match.

“We made too many defensive errors and we were punished. At 2-0 up, Italy were able to play on the counter-attack and we didn't come up with a good response.”

Klinsmann said that he expects his team to bounce back from the 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Italy, and that the team will redeem themselves in the upcoming World Cup warm-up in Dortmund against Bruce Arena’s USA on March 22.

While Wednesday's loss in Florence left fans and the German media reeling, the ever-optimistic Klinsmann said he would be making no other changes to the Germany squad for the USA friendly.

“We fully believe in this team. All the players who were there last night will be called back for the match against the United States,” Klinsmann told reporters in Frankfurt after the team's return on Thursday. “They will get the chance to make amends.”

Germany captain Michael Ballack also feels that the team can easily overcome this defeat, saying: “Four goals is hard to take but the errors we made were punished,” said Ballack.

“Fortunately the next game is not for three weeks. Then you will see a different German team.”

Klinsmann said how his team never recovered after conceding two goals in the first seven minutes of the match.

“But there are no excuses. You can lose against Italy, but we expect redemption, we want to see a reaction against the United States,” said Klinsmann.

“This team is strong enough to overcome such setbacks. It's stable enough to put it behind us. With positive thinking, there will be no problems. We have to look ahead.''

Klinsmann said one of the reasons for his team's poor performance was that some of the players were not starters in their foreign clubs. He said tactical errors could be fixed when Germany goes into training camp before the World Cup.

“We firmly believe that we will be in the tournament until the end,” finished Klinsmann.

Defence has been Klinsmann's problem for a long time, but Klinsmann ruled out a recall to the squad for Borussia Dortmund defender Christian Wörns.

Wörns was excluded from the squad for this friendly, and publicly criticised Klinsmann’s squad policy, which left the German coach fuming, saying that he would now not be picked for the final squad for the World Cup Finals.

“No. He was disrespectful to the coach,” Klinsmann said when asked if he would reconsider.

Things are now looking very bad for Germany. It is now more than five years since Germany last beat top-class opposition, and with the World Cup coming up, the German press are less than sympathetic.

“Germany shrinks to a soccer dwarf,” wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

“Shuddering,” stated German newspaper Bild.

“With 100 days left until the World Cup, we wanted to know what's hiding in our team. The shocking 4-1 in Florence gave us the brutal answer: NOTHING,'' Bild continued.

“Mamma Mia, we are bad!” said the influential newspaper, which has been heavily critical of Klinsmann, and more especially his decision to continue to live in California.

The Kicker magazine called the game a "disaster'' for Germany and said that Klinsmann’s tactics were “naïve”, and that Germany had been “humiliated”.