Germany coach Joachim Low saw Germany's 1-1 draw with Finland as a valuable lesson to be learned.

"For sure, we did not play well in the first half," he conceded.

"We could not create many chances and allowed a lot of counter-attacks.

"In the second half we showed our strong morale to not lose this game, and had some good chances."

Low believes the euphoria of qualification just four days ago meant this was always going to be an awkward fixture.

"We were not as fresh in the first half as we were against Russia," he said.

"But that was tough after such an emotional match.

"One point we need to look at is when we play against strong defensive teams. We have to look at how to deal with them and different things to do.

"We do have creative players who have solutions for tough situations. Any team will struggle against opponents who play 10 men in the area - but we have to learn from this and find different ways to react.

"I know we have a good team and a lot of potential and players who can do something extraordinary if needed."

Podolski saved the day and insisted: "I wouldn't say this is a humiliation.

"We had our difficulties. But most important was that we scored the goal. We will analyse this game for November and see what we can learn from it."