FC Bayern needlessly dropped points in the 3-3 draw in Stavanger. Michael Olise’s red card, in particular, will have repercussions far beyond this evening. Three takeaways from the match.
Bayern Munich let a victory that seemed certain slip away against Viking Stavanger. After a disastrous start and falling behind 0–2, the Munich team fought back, turned the game around to lead 3–2—only to concede a late equalizer while down a man.
The match yielded the following insights:
1. Olise hurts Bayern and himself
Michael Olise is usually one of the players who can decide games for FC Bayern. In Stavanger, however, the Frenchman became the big loser of the evening.
After initially receiving a yellow card for holding, Olise got into an altercation with Viking captain Zlatko Tripic shortly afterward and threw the ball in his opponent’s face. The result: a yellow-red card.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Bayern had just turned a 0–2 deficit into a 3–2 lead and appeared to have completely turned the game around. The red card changed the course of the match once again.
Vincent Kompany had some strong words afterward: “That yellow-red card is, of course, incredibly stupid. But everything has been addressed—we’re clear on that. He knows he has to be smarter in those situations.”
That’s exactly the crux of the matter. Olise let himself get provoked at a crucial moment, thereby weakening his team. Kompany had to react; Bayern dropped deeper, and Stavanger managed to equalize 3–3 in stoppage time.
The lapse also has consequences beyond this evening. Olise will now miss the upcoming Champions League match against Arsenal, of all teams. With his “absolutely stupid” move, the 24-year-old has not only hurt Bayern in Stavanger but also himself.
2. Bayern’s second string misses its chance
Compared to the 2–2 draw at FC Augsburg, Kompany had made six changes to his starting lineup. Jonas Urbig, Konrad Laimer, Minjae Kim, Nathaniel Brown, Tom Bischof, and Lennart Karl were all new additions to the starting lineup.
Stavanger was a great opportunity, especially for several players who hadn’t been regulars in the starting lineup recently. But none of them really managed to make a case for themselves.
Karl was ineffective in the first half, committing numerous turnovers and technical errors, and was benched at halftime. The same was true for Brown. The left back struggled to keep up with Peter Christiansen during the 0–2 loss and made little impact offensively.
Bischof, alongside Joshua Kimmich, also got the chance to start. The 21-year-old struggled at first as well, rarely making an impact and failing to influence the game decisively.
Another disappointment was Jonathan Tah. The center back is by no means a second-string player and is actually a regular starter under Kompany. This made his weak performance all the more noticeable. On the early 0–1 goal, Tah lost the decisive duel and, overall, seemed uncharacteristically sluggish on the artificial turf. His time on the field also came to an end after 45 minutes.
The fact that Kompany made three substitutions at halftime—bringing on Alphonso Davies, Dayot Upamecano, and Ismael Saibari—sent a clear signal. Upamecano, in particular, immediately provided more stability, while Davies brought significantly more dynamism to the left side.
With such a tight schedule, Kompany will have to continue rotating his lineup. Stavanger, however, has shown that Bayern’s second string is currently struggling.
3. Bayern is coming under pressure in the standings unnecessarily early
The 3-3 draw stings not only because of the dramatic course of the game. The two lost points could also prove costly in the Champions League standings.
On paper, Viking Stavanger was one of the opponents against whom Bayern had firmly planned to secure a victory. After their commanding 5-0 win against Bodo/Glimt in the season opener, a perfect start with six points from the first two games would have been possible.
Instead, the Munich team now has four points—and the tougher challenges of the group stage are still to come.
Opponents like Arsenal and Atlético Madrid are waiting—teams against whom it will likely be much harder to pick up points. The two points Bayern left on the table in Stavanger are thus already increasing the pressure on the upcoming matches early on.
Especially under the new Champions League format, a finish among the top eight is enormously valuable because it guarantees direct advancement to the round of 16 and spares the team the additional playoff matches.
Last season, Bayern secured an excellent starting position for the knockout stage with a strong run in the league. This time around, their margin for error has already narrowed after just the second matchday.
The situation is by no means dramatic yet. Nevertheless, Bayern has unnecessarily complicated its path to the top 8 by dropping points in Stavanger.