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Bayern Munich goalscorer Tim Borowski admitted the defending Bundesliga champions were bitterly frustrated at dropping two points in Saturday's 2-2 draw with VfB Stuttgart.

Bayern had been leading 2-1 away from home with time almost up as second-half goals from Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni, his sixth in consecutive league games, and Borowski cancelled out a first-half header from Stuttgart's Sami Khedira.

But Munich had Italian defender Massimo Oddo sent off with five minutes left just before Germany Under-21 midfielder Khedira struck again in the 90th minute with a devastating volley to equalise for the hosts.

The single point was enough to put Bayern top of the table on Saturday night before Hoffenheim's Sunday game against Schalke 04, the final German league game of the year ahead of the winter break.

“Obviously, we shouldn't be conceding an equaliser like that, that's totally frustrating,” Borowski told the Bayern website.

“We could even have made it 3-1 or 4-1 on the break, we should have been far more ruthless.”

Oddo was shown a straight red card when he appeared to kick Stuttgart's Christian Traesch in the head while challenging for the ball and Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann said the dismissal was crucial.

“The red card turned the game,” said ex-Germany boss Klinsmann, whose side had gone from 11th in the league at the start of October to first.

“We took a 2-1 lead after a very convincing second half, so it's obviously a shame we were pegged back in the last minute.

“We really don't understand Massimo Oddo's sending off.

“Massimo was just getting up to play the ball.

“He had no intention whatsoever of injuring his opponent, he just didn't see him coming.

“Giving a red card for that is a mistake.”

The draw with Bayern was an impressive result for Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel, who was given his first senior coaching job just three weeks ago when Armin Veh was sacked.

Babbel's side is unbeaten after his first three games in charge and have taken seven points from a possible nine.

“I saw a sensational team performance out there,” said Babbel.

“My team did everything they could to win the game.

“We more or less deserved to take the lead, but we were careless and tossed it away.

“It took unbending resolve to earn the equaliser.”

And Stuttgart captain Thomas Hitzlsperger said the team are showing the fighting spirit which has put them a healthy tenth in the league.

“We made a fight of it right until the final seconds and our heads never went down, even against as good a team as Bayern,” said the ex-Aston Villa midfielder.

“It shows how determined we are, and we need to keep that going.”

Written by SoccerNews · Tags: Bundesliga