Germany's players admitted they had given Spain too much respect in their 1-0 World Cup semi-final defeat at the Durban Stadium here.

Spain will play the Netherlands in Sunday's final in Johannesburg after centre-back Carles Puyol's header made the difference in a largely cagey affair.

But while European champions Spain dominated possession and controlled the game with their slick passing style, Germany never got their rapid counter-attacks working.

And forward Miroslav Klose, who played in the European Championship final defeat to Spain by the same score two years ago, believes they should have done more.

"We needed to force Spain more into making mistakes but we didn't do that," said the 32-year-old, who rarely looked like adding to his four goals at these finals.

"They had so much of the ball that we never stopped running around after them.

"We didn't manage to push enough to hurt them. This (the defeat) is even harder (than 2008) but we have a young team with a great future," added Klose, who is one goal off equalling Brazilian Ronaldo's 15 goals as the all-time World Cup finals leading scorer.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer acknowledged that Spain were the better team but also expressed his surprise at the manner of the Spanish winner, coming from a corner rather than a silky passing move.

And he also said that it was Spain's superior defence that prevented Germany enjoying any success on the counter attack.

"I feel very bad because we lost the semi-final and we wanted to go to the final, but Spain was the better team," he said.

"We wanted to have good defence and make fast breaks but it depends on Spain for us to make a fast break, they were very good in defence and we couldn't do it like before.

"If we had played our best maybe we could beat Spain but it wasn't our best game.

"We didnt have confidence in our game from the first minute, we had maybe too much respect for Spain.

"It was not easy to defend this goal because it seemed to me they would play a short corner but then Puyol and (Gerard) Pique ran to the ball from 10 metres back so (they jumped) higher than our defenders, it was a surprise for Germany to concede at a corner."

Despite their disappointement, Neuer said overall when they look back on their tournament, the young German team can be pleased.

"Of course it was a good World Cup but when you're in the semi-final you want to have everything," he said. "Now is not a good moment for us but all in all it was a good tournament."