Kompany on Patrik Schick and Leverkusen's form

"We've played against almost every team in the league. Leverkusen's squad is among the best. They have very good strikers. They can defend deep and did that against us in the league meeting. I don't know if they'll approach things in the same way this time. I hope we can play to our strengths tomorrow and focus on ourselves, regardless of how Leverkusen play."

Freund on possible contract extensions

"We're in good talks with Musiala and Kimmich. Our desire is to reach a positive conclusion. When that happens isn't important. We're positive in regards to both."

Freund on the January transfer window

"We have complete faith in our squad. Harry is a special player, is tough to replace. We won't buy a second Kane. We're very well covered in attack and will find a solution."

Kompany again on Xabi Alonso and their experience

"That's a difficult question. There are two paths: you were a player and then become a coach or you decide early on to become a coach. You can't underestimate the amount of work you have to do to make the transition from player to coach. The time management is completely different. I've tried to use a lot of software, analyse games and stay authentic. The result of being here is the result of hard work. I benefit from my experience as a leader as a player. Everyone has to start at some point. But the most important thing is hard work."

Kompany on an alleged incident involving Leroy Sane

"I've watched the Dortmund game twice now and not seen anything."

Kompany on Leverkusen

"You can look at the last 10 or 15 games against Leverkusen. They're a team that can press really high. They play very aggressively, very compactly. In the first half of the season, they've been very compact and very flexible in their system. They are very variable. We have to be alert and play to our strengths."

Kompany on comparisons with Xabi Alonso

"As a player, I was far away from Xabi Alonso because I was a defender. As a player, he always found passes, no matter how big the distance was. But now we're coaches and we live for this job. Against Dortmund it was against Nuri Sahin, now it's against Xabi Alonso. I think he'll transfer his experience to his players because he knows the game."

More from Freund on the matter

"There's this rule and everyone has to stick to it. Even if every player handles it differently and there are different sizes."

Kompany on Olise's shin pads

"I didn't follow that. Sure, you can't do that. I want the players to always set an example. But that's not a big deal for me. There are different sizes of shin pads, everyone does it differently. There used to be big shin pads. I don't want to sugarcoat it, but it's not a big issue."