FC Bayern has been unable to secure anything more than a draw recently. Following the 2-2 tie against FC Augsburg, the Munich team also had to settle for a single point in the Champions League against Viking Stavanger. In the spectacular 3-3 draw in Norway, Michael Olise’s ejection and several referee decisions sparked controversy. Coach Vincent Kompany had strong words for referee Georgi Kabakov after the final whistle.
The Belgian made no secret of the fact that his team had cost itself a potential victory through its own mistakes. Bayern fell behind after just one minute, and Viking extended their lead to 2-0 before halftime.
After the break, the German record champions fought back impressively and briefly turned the game around to lead 3–2. But the yellow-red card against Olise put Munich in trouble once again. In stoppage time, the hosts finally managed to equalize.
Despite their own shortcomings, Kompany was anything but satisfied with the officiating.
Kompany: “The communication wasn’t normal.”
In an interview with Amazon Prime Video, the Bayern coach leveled sharp criticism at Kabakov. He was less concerned with a single decision than with the Bulgarian referee’s overall conduct.
“I have to be completely honest—even before the game, I had the feeling that the referee wanted to do something special here today,” Kompany explained.
The 40-year-old had apparently gotten the impression early on that the referee was officiating the match in an unusual way. “It was incredibly clear that he was playing a bigger role,” the Bayern coach added.
In particular, the communication between the referee and the players—as well as the coaching bench—left Kompany baffled. “It was just a feeling I had—the communication wasn’t normal from the very beginning,” the Belgian emphasized.
In doing so, Kompany clearly questioned the manner in which the game was officiated, without citing a specific wrong call as the sole reason for the loss of a point.
Kompany holds Olise accountable
He explicitly excluded the red card shown to Michael Olise from his criticism of the referee. After receiving a first yellow card, the French attacking star threw the ball at his opponent Zlatko Tripic’s face and was subsequently shown a second yellow card.
Kompany had already criticized his player for the unnecessary action immediately after the match and had a conversation with him. In his assessment of the referees’ performance, he also made it clear that Olise himself must take responsibility for his red card. “There’s no excuse—the red card is entirely Michael’s fault,” the Bayern coach clarified.
Nevertheless, there were several situations during the match that raised questions for him.
“But there were simply a few situations in the game where you found yourself wondering, ‘What’s actually going on here?’” Kompany explained.
One example of the controversy was the penalty kick situation following a foul on Konrad Laimer. Only after a review by the VAR did Kabakov award a penalty kick to Munich.
Harry Kane then converted the penalty to make it 1–2.
Bayern must learn from its mistakes
Despite all the criticism of the referee, Kompany did not want to shift the blame for the disappointing result away from his team.
Rather, the Belgian believes his players have a duty to remain focused and disciplined even under difficult circumstances. “Then you have to be even smarter, because something can always happen that’s beyond your control,” explained the 40-year-old.
That’s exactly what the Munich team lacked on several occasions in Stavanger.
In addition to falling behind early and the red card, defensive lapses in particular prevented Bayern from winning despite their clear dominance on the field.
Kompany and his team have little time to analyze what happened.
The Bundesliga match against RB Leipzig is already scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 p.m.