ABERDEEN, Scotland (AFP) - Jimmy Calderwood believes his Aberdeen side can still knock German giants Bayern Munich out of the UEFA Cup after the sides drew 2-2 at Pittodrie on Thursday.

The Dons were expected by many to go down meekly to the Bundesliga leaders. However, in front of a lively 20,047 crowd in Aberdeen, Calderwood's team twice led the mighty Munich in the first leg only to be pegged back on both occasions.

The result further increases the likelihood Bayern will book their places in the last 16 of the competition where they will face either Anderlecht or Bordeaux.

Calderwood, though, believes his Dons can emulate their 1983 predecessors, who knocked Bayern out of the Cup Winners Cup quarter-finals on their way to lifting the trophy.

The Aberdeen manager said: "We were hoping to make a wee bit of history and if we had won the game we would have, but we've still got a chance.

"Football is football and it's only 11 men against 11. The tie is far from over and we have nothing to lose.

"It's all about confidence and belief that we can do it. Good teams let you play and you need to have confidence to go and play, although obviously you have to defend well."

And Calderwood believes his young players will not be fazed by facing the German stars at their magnicent 69,000 capacity Allianz Arena in the second leg next Thursday.

He said: "It's a fabulous stadium, a fabulous pitch and a few of our lads will take a lot of confidence from the first leg.

"All the pressure is still on Bayern. We have a lot of young players who have nothing to fear so we'll go and give it a go. We've got to score so it's no use sitting back for 90 minutes."

At half-time Aberdeen had been leading 2-1 courtesy of two great strikes from 18-year-olds Josh Walker and Sone Aluko, on-loan from English Premiership sides Middlesbrough and Birmingham respectively, with Miroslav Klose scoring in between for Munich.

In the 24th minute Walker had curled a sweet 25-yard shot beyond German goalkeeper Michael Rensing and into the corner of the net.

Bayern levelled in the 30th minute when Miroslave Klose latched on to Luca Toni's flick to smash a first-time right foot shot into the roof of the net. But amazingly Aberdeen again got their noses in front in the 41st minute.

Aluko muscled his way through the centre of the Bayern defence and sent a left-foot shot from 18-yards through goalkeeper Rensing, who should have been able to save.

Calderwood was delighted with the performances of his two young goalscorers but admitted it would be unlikely their long-term future would be at Pittodrie.

He said: "Josh and Sone have big, big future's ahead of them and it would be nice to think that could be at Aberdeen.

"Unfortunately that's unlikely after their performances on Thursday but I'm just glad we have them here at the moment." Despite leading at the break the Dons were unable to hang on to their lead.

Bayern's second equaliser, in the 54th minute, however, was controversial, with Spanish referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez harshle judging Aberdeen's Alan Maybury had intentionally handled Ze Roberto's cross.

Although Hamit Altintop's penalty was blocked by Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield, the Turkish international smashed the rebound home.