As a German who plays for Real Madrid, Christoph Metzelder knows that reporting for pre-season training in a few weeks will be either blissful or intolerable, depending on whether or not he has a European Championship winner's medal around his neck. He also knows more than most of his compatriots about the psychology of Spanish football and he believes that it is something that Germany can exploit in the final tomorrow.

Playing in the final of a leading international tournament may be a new experience for some of Germany's players - including Michael Ballack, the captain, who was suspended when they lost to Brazil in the World Cup final six years ago - but it is not a prospect that will unnerve their squad. Amazingly, this will be the twelfth final in the past 22 tournaments they have entered as either Germany or West Germany, dating back to the 1966 World Cup. In the same period Spain, European champions for the one and only time in 1964, have reached one final, losing to France in this competition 24 years ago.

“I think they [Spain] have a bit of a complex about these tournaments,” Metzelder said yesterday. “It has taken them decades just to get beyond the quarter-finals. I know they have respect for us and that will be in the back of their minds when we play them on Sunday. They are an excellent side, but this is a big game and big games have their own rules.”

If it sounds like fighting talk from the Real defender, it probably is. But it is worth noting that, since winning the World Cup as West Germany in 1990, three months before reunification was formalised, his country have won only one tournament, the 1996 European Championship, as a united Germany. Finals have been lost to Denmark in the 1992 European Championship, to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup and, looking at a defence that has shipped two goals against each of Croatia, Portugal and Turkey in Euro 2008, it is not easy to characterise this as a team of stereotypical Teutonic efficiency.

Germany could be said to have reached the final the hard way, beaten comprehensively by Croatia in a group match before 3-2 victories over Portugal, impressively, and Turkey, falteringly. All in all, their campaign has been in keeping with its pre-tournament billing as a “mountain tour” in neighbouring Austria and Switzerland, with their players dressing up as gentleman mountaineers for a television advertisement and Joachim Löw, the coach, announcing his squad near the unlikely surroundings of Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak.

“Calling the tournament a mountain tour was criticised by some people,” Oliver Bierhoff, Löw's assistant, said yesterday. “The players also smirked when they saw the big poster of a mountain here at the team hotel, showing the different peaks we had to scale here. But they have all accepted the image now. Mountain tours are about helping your team-mates and accepting their help. We have had no conflicts among the squad. We are all pulling together.”

Germany's character is not in doubt. What is less certain is the ability of some of their players against what appears a far more technically talented Spain team. Those players include Metzelder, who has had a largely inactive season with Real, Per Mertesacker, his central-defensive partner, and Jens Lehmann, the goalkeeper, who has not been convincing.

Franz Beckenbauer, the former Germany captain and coach, stated in an interview yesterday that Lehmann, who will join VfB Stuttgart when his contract with Arsenal expires on July 1, was “in very good form”, suggesting that it was the defenders who were more culpable in the semi-final against Turkey. Metzelder will need to be at his best to protect his goalkeeper tomorrow. If Germany lose, the Real defender will have more reason than most to regret it over the months ahead.