BERLIN (AFP) -- With 99 days to go until the kickoff of the 2006 World Cup the German football public are in a gloomy mood following Wednesday's 4-1 thrashing by Italy in Florence.

Italy cut through the German defense at will to go four goals to the good with less than an hour played and a late consolation strike from Robert Huth could not paper over the glaring cracks. "Mamma Mia we are bad!" concluded Bild daily.

"We will go down at the World Cup if we play like that."

"Disaster" was the hard-hitting headline of magazine Kicker, which said Germany had got a tactical lesson from the more technically gifted Italians.

It was Jurgen Klinsmann's heaviest defeat since taking charge in July 2004 and Germany's biggest loss since the 5-1 hammering by Romania in April 2004.

"Italy gave us a lesson today," confessed Klinsmann, who played for Serie A giants Inter Milan in the early 1990s.

"We made too many defensive errors and we were punished. At 2-0 up, Italy were able to play on the counterattack and we didn't come up with a good response."

Captain Michael Ballack, well below his best like most of his teammates, admitted the hosts had to take stock of the situation and put things right in the next warm-up match against the United States on March 22 in Dortmund.

"Four goals is hard to take but the errors we made were punished," said Ballack.

"Fortunately the next game is not for three weeks. Then you will see a different German team."

The U.S. friendly is the last match before Klinsmann names his final World Cup squad on May 14 and certain players will be desperate to prove they are not out of their depth at international level.

Germany, who have not defeated a recognized top nation since the 1-0 win over England in October 2000, face additional warm-up matches against Japan on May 30 and Colombia three days later.

On June 9 Germany then open the World Cup against Costa Rica in Munich before facing further group matches against Poland and Ecuador.