MANCHESTER, England – Manchester City battled Feyenoord for 75 minutes on Tuesday night and headed to Liverpool on Sunday with a much-needed injection of confidence after a painful run of five consecutive defeats. By the time manager Pep Guardiola walked back through the tunnel full-time, he had seen the Dutch side horribly expose the vulnerability that infected his team, and a match that should have ended in a 3-0 home win ended in a 3- 3 draw.

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

Feyenoord scored three times in the final fifteen minutes at the Etihad Stadium, leaving City with work to do to finish in the top eight of the Champions League group stages. More immediately, Guardiola will have to head to Anfield this weekend to play the Premier League leaders with a group of players who appear chronically low on confidence. It is now six games without a win and seven goals conceded in the space of four days.

The end of the match was such a shock that Guardiola was at a loss for words.

“There is no need to say anything to the players, they know it perfectly,” Guardiola said. ‘It is what it is. It’s hard to swallow now.

“We mainly give away the first one and after that we are not stable enough. The match was good, we played well, we scored three and could have scored more. We are a team that has scored few, few goals in these eight or nine years We can’t finish the games. Now we rest for one or two days and prepare for Anfield.”

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

But for a while, it looked like Erling Haaland would close the cracks. Much of the first half action looked awkward and disjointed until the Norwegian striker slotted home a penalty in the 44th minute.

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

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

Guardiola certainly thought he had done enough to win the match, and with one eye on Liverpool, he took the opportunity to replace Nathan Aké, Phil Foden and Gündoğan with more than twenty minutes remaining. Nunes and James McAtee were in central midfield, and a Feyenoord side that seemed to be out of attacking ideas was suddenly emboldened.

Anis Hadj Moussa scored what looked like a consolation before substitute Santiago Giménez – returning from injury – netted a second with eight minutes remaining.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Tottenham, Guardiola labeled his team as ‘fragile’. And that’s how they looked during a chaotic final.

Igor Paixão drove a long ball over the top, Ederson came flying out to clear the danger, but was left in a heap on the ground. With only Rico Lewis guarding the goal, Paixão crossed for Dávid Hancko to head in and send the Feyenoord fans behind the goal into a bouncing mass of delirium.

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

The traveling Feyenoord supporters spent the final minutes chanting the name of former boss Arne Slot – now in charge of Liverpool – and singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

Slot has the small 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 match 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, meanwhile, have conceded at least two in each of the last six.

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 lead. 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 match against Liverpool. “That’s my job. We didn’t lose today. Everyone knows the situation. I don’t have to add anything at all. We’re going to train (Wednesday), recover and prepare for the next match. Day off and we have two or three days to prepare and go for it.”

Even at this early stage, it feels like their season is on a razor’s edge.