As if the English weren’t depressed enough by the prospect of having two German teams battle it out in London’s Wembley Stadium for the Champions League final this weekend, the streamlined jersey by Nike has added insult to injury.

The white shirt, Germany’s traditional home colour, has a simple dark blue collar – making it look remarkably similar to the jersey worn by Franz Beckenbauer as he won the World Cup in Munich in nearly four decades ago.

Legendary England striker Gary Lineker sarcastically said on the online message service Twitter that the new strip might be long-suffering Three Lions’ best hope of upping their game against the Germans.

Smart move by @fa and @nikefootball to go slightly German with the strip. If you can’t beat ’em…….

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 20, 2013

Ironically, when Germany changed their away jersey colour from its traditional green to red a few years ago, German fans complained their side looked too much like England.

The Local/mry