MANCHESTER, England – Manchester City played 75 minutes against Feyenoord on Tuesday night and traveled to Liverpool on Sunday with a much-needed dose of confidence after a run of five straight defeats. However, when coach Pep Guardiola went back into the tunnel for normal time, he had witnessed the Dutch team horrifically exposing the vulnerability that infects his team, and a game that should have ended in a 3-0 home win , ended in a 3-3 draw.

It wasn’t the sixth loss in a row, it just felt like it.

Feyenoord scored three goals in the final 15 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, meaning City still have a lot of work to do to finish in the top eight of the Champions League group stage. In short: Guardiola has to go to Anfield this weekend to face the Premier League leaders with a group of players chronically lacking in confidence. There are now six games without a win and seven goals conceded within four days.

The end of the game was such a shock that Guardiola was speechless.

“You don’t have to tell the players anything, they know exactly,” said Guardiola. “It is what it is. It’s hard to swallow now.”

“Especially the first one and after that we are not stable enough. The game was good, we played well, we scored three goals and could have scored more. We are a team that has conceded very few goals in these eight or nine years.” . We can’t finish the games and prepare for Anfield.

For much of the first half, City played like a team trying to find itself. The swagger that saw them win the last four Premier League titles has evaporated during their worst run of form since 2006.

However, for a while it looked as if Erling Haaland would cover the gaps. Much of the first half performance seemed clumsy and disjointed until the Norwegian striker converted a penalty in the 44th minute.

It seemed to demoralize Feyenoord, who conceded two more goals eight minutes after half-time. Ilkay Gündoğan’s deflected volley made it 2-0 before Matheus Nunes raced down the right and crossed for Haaland, who scored his second goal of the night. He now has 51 goal involvements (goals and assists) in the Champions League, a record in 44 games, fewer than anyone else in the history of the competition.

The great thing about having such a prolific scorer is that he can cover up a lot of problems.

Guardiola certainly believed he had done enough to win the game and, with Liverpool in mind, he seized the opportunity, replacing Nathan Aké, Phil Foden and Gündoğan with more than 20 minutes remaining. That left Nunes and James McAtee in central midfield, and a Feyenoord team seemingly out of attacking ideas suddenly felt emboldened.

Anis Hadj Moussa scored what seemed like a consolation goal before substitute Santiago Giménez, returning from injury, scored the second eight minutes from time.

After Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Tottenham, Guardiola described his team as “fragile”. And that’s exactly how they looked during a chaotic finale.

Igor Paixão chased a long ball over the top, Ederson flew out to clear the danger but ended up lying prone on the ground. With only Rico Lewis guarding the goal, Paixão crossed to Dávid Hancko, who headed it in, sending the Feyenoord fans behind the goal into wild celebrations.

“Coming from Feyenoord, it was an incredible evening,” said coach Brian Priske. “It was a strange game. It was an incredible result. For me they are still the best team in the world. You always believe it, but we knew it was always going to be a difficult game. Normally we don’t celebrate a draw,” but this is something special.

The traveling Feyenoord fans spent the final minutes chanting the name of former coach Arne Slot, now Liverpool manager, and singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Slot has the little matter of Real Madrid to deal with on Wednesday before facing City this weekend, but when it comes time to watch the final 15 minutes of the game against Feyenoord, the Dutchman will be licking his lips in anticipation. Liverpool have scored two or more goals in each of their last six games. City have conceded at least two goals in each of their last six games.

Guardiola said on Saturday that City will be out of the title race before Christmas if they lose at Anfield and allow an 11-point deficit to open up. His job now is to try to lift his players up to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“We have to (win), we have to,” Guardiola said of Sunday’s game against Liverpool. “That is my job. We didn’t lose today. Everyone knows the situation. I have absolutely nothing to add. We will train (Wednesday), recover and prepare for the next game. Day off and we have two or three days to get ready and get started.”

Even at this early stage, it seems as if the season is on a knife’s edge.