MUNICH, May 24 (SW) - With over one-third of the 17 World Cups having been won by the host nations, Germany manager Jürgen Klinsmann is confident his squad can be considered challengers.

"We don't even think of getting eliminated," said Klinsmann, who lifted the World Cup with West Germany in 1990.

"We tell the players that all our games are like European Cup home games - and we have only home games at this World Cup."

He added: "If you set yourselves a minimum target then you will get eliminated one round later at the latest so it is important that the team feels that there will always be a next step.

"We cannot say that if we reach the quarter-finals it would be a success - that would be completely wrong.

"Even if we play against Brazil we will not just play defensively. We will try to play attacking football and cause pressure.

"We still have to learn though to be more compact while playing that way. That is what we are working on intensely at the moment."

Germany play Costa Rica, Ecuador and Poland in Group A action, opening against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9.