After his players had suffered an inexplicable second-half blackout at the Stadio Olimpico three weeks ago, a shocked Thomas Tuchel argued that it wasn’t Lazio who had won the game – but Bayern Munich who had lost it.

It’s become a recurring theme of the coach’s post-match press conferences, with Tuchel arguing again after Friday’s 2-2 draw with Freiburg – which essentially ended the Bavarians’ Bundesliga title hopes – that his team’s wounds had been once again self-inflicted.

“We actually played very, very early, like it was the 85th minute and we were 1-0 down,” he told DAZN, visibly mystified by what he had just witnessed. “I don’t think it was a matter of will or effort. We just played mindlessly for the first half-hour and were punished for it.

“We started attacks before things had got going at all, lost the ball in the forward movement and invited them to counter-attack. We played with no structure at all, were far too ill-disciplined and weren’t in our correct positions at all. It was partly harakiri.”

The reference to ritualistic suicide by disembowelment rather unsurprisingly provoked an emotional response from not just the German media, but also the club. Such violent imagery did little to lessen the mounting tension at the Allianz Arena ahead of the Champions League second-leg clash with Lazio on Tuesday night.

The use of ‘harakiri’ wasn’t entirely without justification, though, given Bayern really are to blame for killing their own hopes of success this season.