Vincent Kompany explains Harry Kane and Michael Olise rotation after Bayern draw 0-0 at Schalke | OneFootball

Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany offered plenty of praise for newly promoted Schalke 04 after the German record champions were held to a 0-0 draw in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday evening.

Bayern controlled most of the match and created the clearer opportunities, but found Schalke goalkeeper Loris Karius in inspired form. Kompany felt Schalke deserved considerable credit for surviving the pressure.

“It was a beautiful football match with emotion and passion,” the Bayern trainer said at his post-match press conference. “There were also plenty of defensive situations in which something special always had to happen. Schalke managed that this evening, so congratulations. They did a great job and gave everything. You could see that.”

Kompany: Bayern failed to sustain pressure

The Belgian nevertheless identified one clear deficiency in his own side’s performance. Bayern enjoyed overwhelming territorial superiority, while Schalke rarely threatened at the opposite end. Kompany felt his team failed to maintain the tempo required to eventually break down such a compact defensive block.

“Every game has its own story,” Kompany said. “Our story was that we didn’t score and the opponent went home without a shot. But that shouldn’t take anything away from Schalke. I’ve seen games like this plenty of times. You need 90 minutes of pressure against defenses like this until they crack. We didn’t quite manage that today because we took the tempo out of the game several times. We only managed it for 60 or 70 minutes.”

The scoreless draw ended an extraordinary Bayern sequence. The reigning German double winners had scored in 58 consecutive competitive matches since a 2-0 Club World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in July 2025.

Kompany explains Harry Kane and Michael Olise bench roles

Bayern began the match without two of their most important attacking players. Kane and Olise both started on the bench before entering during the second half. Kompany stressed that the decision had nothing to do with form or tactical dissatisfaction.

“The decision with Michael and Harry was simply completely rational,” Kompany explained. “The two of them only came back very, very late from their holiday after the World Cup. It’s not a given that you can just say: ‘You play 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes.’ The cup match in Osnabrück [on Wednesday] also took energy. You can’t always put that full workload on these guys.”

Both players increased Bayern’s attacking threat after entering.

Olise quickly forced Karius into a save from a tight angle, while Kane came closest to breaking the deadlock late on when his powerful long-range effort was spectacularly turned away by the Schalke keeper.

GGFN | Peter Weis