Michael Olise was sent off for the first time in his professional career after receiving two yellow cards in quick succession during Bayern Munich's dramatic 3–3 draw against the Norwegian side.
After turning over possession, Olise committed a tactical professional foul by pulling Henrik Heggheim's shirt to break up a dangerous Viking FK counterattack.
While the referee was actively brandishing the first yellow card, Olise lost his composure in a moment of frustration and threw the match ball directly into the face of Viking captain Zlatko Tripić prompting the referee to instantly instantly issued a second booking and a subsequent red card.
All the provocations and petty niggling tactics had been carefully planned, Tripic reported to the Norwegian broadcaster TV2 after the 3–3 draw, commenting on the yellow-red card shown to Olise:
"It’s great that a player like that—who will most likely win the Ballon d'Or someday—gets all worked up by a kid from Oftebro and Lyngdal. I managed to wind him up. You can't play fair against a team like Bayern."
"Olise shouldn't get too comfortable here", explained the 33-year-old, who had played 36 second-division matches in Germany for SpVgg Greuther Fürth between January 2015 and the summer of 2017.
"And when I managed to distract him from what he does exceptionally well, he lost his temper and threw the ball in my face. I feel like I won that duel with him."
Bayern officials saw it the same way. Vincent Kompany told Prime Video he had said to Olise, "The number 10 was smarter than you," while sporting director Max Eberl remarked: "He played like a real b......; he wanted to win the match. We let ourselves get provoked, and he achieved exactly what he wanted—getting one of our players sent off."
Unfazed, Harry Kane described Tripic as a "brave player who likes to win free-kicks, roll around on the ground, and waste time. You come up against players like that all the time."
