Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Lars Bender has said that finishing third in the Bundesliga is his side's "main target" this season.

The Werkself, who suffered a 2-1 defeat to league leaders Bayern Munich at home on Saturday, are currently third in the standings with 45 points from 26 matches.

"Third place is our main target and we're still in a good position," he told Bundesliga.com. "We showed again today how much life there is in our team; it's not easy staging a comeback against Bayern.

"Other teams might have crumbled after going a goal behind, but not us. We fought back and showed the passion that we needed to. We take that as big positive, but it's about time we start collecting points again."

Leverkusen will take on Fortuna Dusseldorf in their next Bundesliga game.