German team manager Oliver Bierhoff has called for his team to break the habit of their traditional second-game slump when the Germans face Holland in Wednesday’s key Euro 2012 clash.

Germany take on the World Cup finalists in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday with the Dutch desperately needing a win to stay in the tournament after opening their Group B campaign with a shock 1-0 defeat to Denmark on Saturday.

The Germans jetted from their Euro 2012 base here to Ukraine on Tuesday in confident mood after Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez’s second-half header gave them a 1-0 win over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal last Saturday in Lviv.

But the Germans have a habit of crashing to defeat in their second game at major tournaments, despite starting with an impressive win.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, having opened with a 4-0 rout of Australia, Germany suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Serbia, five days later.

Likewise, at Euro 2008, an impressive 2-0 victory over Poland was backed up by a surprise 2-1 defeat to Croatia en route to the final and Bierhoff is hoping his team will brush off the second-game slump to beat the Dutch.

“I hope that after the second game this time it will be different and that we come out as winners,” Bierhoff told reporters before the team’s departure.

Having hammered Holland 3-0 in Hamburg in a friendly last November, when both teams were missing several first-choice players, Bierhoff said any assumptions of a repeat result would be ‘crazy’.

“It was a good yardstick at the time and a great game for us, but that was a different Dutch team to the one we’ll face,” said Bierhoff.

“This is a tournament situation and we would be crazy to think the game will go the same way.

“It will be much harder, they were missing a few players and the Dutch will be stronger.

“If everything comes together for us we can win this game. We have said we want to beat the Dutch and that has not changed.”