BERLIN (AFP) - A bad day at the office was how Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld summed up his side's lacklustre performance in their 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Nuremberg on Saturday.

With several of their squad involved in international call-ups last week, Bayern had little spark in the Bavarian derby and it took a late Lukas Podolski goal to salvage a point in Nuremberg.

A 46,780 full house at the Frankenstadion saw the leaders begin energetically enough, but a pin-point accurate long-range strike from Nuremberg's Zvjezdan Misimovic put the home side ahead just before half-time.

Bayern were looking down the barrel of a defeat until Podolski bailed them out and the league leaders will not want a repeat of the below-par performance despite their seven-point lead at the top of the table.

"We had a bad day," Bayern boss Ottmar Hitzfeld said on the club's website.

"It was obvious we were incredibly weary from the midweek internationals, which is why we didn't pass well and had trouble playing decent football.

"Our internationals were totally drained when they came back and they never got going.

"Franck Ribery was one of the most tired players on the pitch.

"We dozed off for the opening goal. I was angry at half-time, because players can't be putting in one or two kilometres more for their countries than for us.

"That's not on, and it's something we'll be having a frank talk about."

While Ribery scored the winning goal for France against England at the Stade de France last week, Germany striker Lukas Podolski capped a good personal week with his second goal in two games.

Having come off the bench in Basel to score Germany's last goal in the 4-0 friendly win over Switzerland last week, Podolski again came off the bench to hit Bayern's equaliser with time running out.

"The game was as tough as we expected, but that's a derby for you," said the 22-year-old with Bayern hunting the Bundesliga, German Cup and UEFA Cup titles.

"The draw was the right result. We have to keep concentrating now, there aren't many games to go and we want to win three trophies."

Bayern were not the only side bidding for the Bundesliga title to have an off day.

Bremen dropped down to fifth after they were shocked 2-1 by Duisburg and none of the top five sides picked up three points on Saturday.

Schalke 04 moved up to third by virtue of their 1-1 draw with Karlsruhe while second-placed Hamburg were held 1-1 by Arminia Bielefeld.

And Bayer Leverkusen dropped to fourth after they were humbled 2-0 at home by Eintracht Frankfurt.