Beckenbauer's taunts will come back to bite him: Ferdinand

London, Jun 26 (ANI): England skipper Rio Ferdinand, who is out of the World Cup with a knee injury, has said that football legend Franz Beckenbauer's taunts will come back to bite him.

Beckenbauer first labelled England as a "kick and rush" team, which had gone backwards under coach Fabio Capello.

Then he said Capello's team were 'stupid' for finishing second in Group C and that the England players were tired from a tough Premier League season.

Ferdinand is convinced that Beckenbauer will still live to regret his taunts when England face the Germans in their last-16 crunch in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

"I think those comments will come back to bite Beckenbauer. Perhaps he wasn't expecting Germany and England to meet this early in the competition. It has unsettled him and he has got a bit rattled, so he's looking for ways to get under our skin," he said.

"But he hasn't. He has just made the lads more determined. The team that wins a World Cup doesn't necessarily start great. It's the way you finish that counts," The Sun quoted Ferdinand, as saying.

"I know some of the lads think it would have been better to play Ghana and it would have been an easier route for us. But I prefer Germany, because you know what you're getting with them. Ghana can be unpredictable. Germany is more straightforward," he said.

"We start again at the knockout stage and facing Germany will spur us on. We are going to have to play well and have a bit of luck. Yet we see ourselves as a lot better team than one which goes out in the last 16," Ferdinand added. (ANI)