"Today we once again saw a team lacking in self confidence, who played too many wrong balls," said Bayern coach Louis van Gaal after the 1-1 draw with league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Philipp Lahm too was demure. "The self confidence is gone, that was obvious against Leverkusen."

Set back after six minutes

Everything started well for the home side. Miroslav Klose replaced Hamit Altintop who sustained an injury during the warm up and Bayern dominated in attempt to find what Manager Uli Hoeneß had described as "redemption" in the "game of games."

Leverkusen's Daniel Schwaab lost the ball allowing Klose to feed Mario Gomez through on goal. The German international gave Bayer keeper Rene Adler no chance with his left footed shot from the outside of the boot. Just as in the game against Schalke, Bayern found themselves with an early 1-0 advantage. The fans began to chant into the Bavarian skies "you won't chance the German champions."

There was to be a set back once more for van Gaal's side. Against Schalke on matchday 12 it had taken 12 minutes, but Leverkusen took just six minutes to level the scores through an impressive Stefan Kießling finish. It was the newly capped German international's ninth goal of the season.

München uncertain, Leverkusen confident

"After conceding the equaliser it was was noticeable that the team wasn't so self assured and we started to make mistakes," said an obviously disappointed Lahm.

The mood in the currently undefeated Leverkusen camp was quite the opposite. "After going behind we tried to get more involved in the game. We attacked well, particularly in the first half," explained Kießling.

Leverkusen's sweeper Stefan Reinartz revealed what the Bavarian's are missing at the moment - self confidence. "We know how strong we are and that we can come back from behind every time," said the 20 year old to bundesliga.de.

Gomez: "Mistakes are critical"

Bayern's coach van Gaal whose team have notched up five wins and six draws so far this season has a more positive outlook. "We put Bayer Leverkusen under pressure in the second half and they didn't have any chances on goal. We could've got the winning goal." The best opportunity fell to Gomez whose 85 minute back heal was matched by an impressive block by Rene Adler.

After the game Gomez got straight to the root of Bayern's misery. "You can see it in the Leverkusen players, every player is full of confidence. At the moment there's a lot of uncertainty in the Bayern camp, because we haven't got the results in the last few weeks. Bayer are in a good run of form and it makes things easier. First and foremost for Bayern, we can't make any more mistakes."

Rummenigge: "Got to get our act together"

Bayern are currently six points adrift of the pace at the top of the Bundesliga and with four games left before the new year Hoeneß's goal of "number one by Christmas" looks a long way off. "We've got to get out act together," claimed Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "Nobody at Bayern is happy with seventh place. The trainer isn't, the fans aren't and we, the board, aren't either."

Wednesday night's champions league tie with currently goalless and pointless Maccaci Haifa could be the start of an upwards trend. However, if Bayern are to have any chance of qualifying for the last 16 they will need some help elsewhere in their group; Juventus can't win in Bordeaux.