Both things are true, and the people arguing about this only want one of them. Tripic set out to goad Olise into exactly this reaction, and that's a grubby way to win a football match. Michael Olise flicked that ball at an opponent's face, in front of the referee, seconds after being booked. You can be disgusted by the first thing and still know the second one is why Bayern played a man down.
Start with the part nobody wants to defend out loud. Setting out to needle an opponent into a red card is its own kind of ugly, even when it works. A player who builds his night around provoking someone else's discipline is leaning on exactly the kind of gamesmanship football keeps rewarding, because referees can only rule on what happens in front of them, not what led to it. If that approach earns a man a result, provocation itself should carry some cost. It doesn't, and that's a problem the game refuses to fix.
Hang the whole thing on the provocation, though, and you're letting Olise walk. He lost his head and handed the official a decision that needed no interpretation at all. That's what got him sent off. Zlatko Tripic, the Viking captain, admitted he set out to wind him up. "I won the battle against him," Tripic said afterwards, delighted with himself. He told you his plan. The plan only works if the target takes the bait, and Olise swallowed it whole.
That should sting in Munich. A smart player walks away from Tripic, lets the provocation sit there, and plays on with eleven men. Olise, on what was the first red card of his senior career across Reading, Crystal Palace, Bayern and France, chose the one response guaranteed to end his night. Vincent Kompany didn't dress it up, and "super dumb" is the polite version of what he meant. Bayern are reportedly weighing an internal fine, and he'll miss the next match against Arsenal. That's what it costs to hand a provocateur the win he was openly chasing.
Tripic deserves every bit of the contempt coming his way, and Bayern director Max Eberl calling him a "jerk" is fair enough. Celebrating a piece of gamesmanship like it's a trophy is a grubby way to win a point, and the 3-3 draw flattered nobody involved. But gamesmanship only works on a player with no discipline, and Olise had none left by that point.
Tripic's gamesmanship was shameless, but Olise still threw the ball. Save your anger for the provocation if you like, just don't pretend it answered the referee's question for him. Olise answered that one himself.
