England manager Gareth Southgate insisted Germany remain the benchmark due to their trophy-winning pedigree as the Three Lions prepared for Tuesday's Nations League match.
England will look to bounce back from their shock loss to Hungary when they face the four-time World Cup winners in Munich.
Southgate's team defeated their traditional rivals in the last 16 of Euro 2020 last year and will be hoping for a repeat on Tuesday.
But Germany have won every match under new boss Hansi Flick, who took over from Joachim Low after the European Championship.
"For me, Germany and Brazil are still the benchmark in terms of countries who've regularly, consistently won tournaments," Southgate said.
"Even when everyone will talk about the 5-1 [England win in 2001] here, they ended up in the World Cup final on the back of that qualifying campaign.
"So you have to respect what they've been as a country and what they are as a country in footballing terms, and that mentality is what we're trying to create.
"We've got to keep getting to the latter stages of competitions and games like tomorrow are brilliant for us - that's exactly the sort of test we need."
His comments came after Germany boss Flick stated his team will need to improve against England's "extraordinary players".
Flick praised the standard of the Premier League, stating "the quality is very high".
"They have six or seven clubs of almost equal level," said Flick, adding that German players who move to the Premier League "take a step up".
The Germany squad contains four players who played for English clubs last season, including three under German coach Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea.
Flick singled out Kai Havertz "who grew up under the influence of Tuchel".
Meanwhile, Southgate has called on England supporters to behave themselves in Munich, admitting any pre-match issues always have a negative impact.
England have been given an allocation of 3,466 at the Allianz Arena but it is expected some supporters will travel without tickets or will have purchased those on sale in home sections of the stadium.
The England manager said poor behaviour leading into matches does affect the squad and that he is left "embarrassed" when it does happen.
"It definitely has an impact," he said. "Staff are working on things detracting from the main part of their job. You are embarrassed when you hear about it, because you know it's a representation of your country.
"So we're always conscious of that. I think we can only give the correct messages – it's then you've got to rely on people behaving themselves."
