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Rob Dawson, Correspondent
MANCHESTER, England — For 75 minutes on Tuesday night, Manchester City were cruising against Feyenoord and heading to Liverpool on Sunday with a much-needed injection of confidence after a bruising run of five straight defeats. By the time manager Pep Guardiola walked back down the tunnel at full-time, though, he had watched the Dutch side horribly expose the vulnerability that is infecting his team, and a game that should have ended in a 3-0 home win finished in a 3-3 draw.
It wasn’t a sixth consecutive defeat, it just felt like one.
Feyenoord scored three times in the final 15 minutes at the Etihad Stadium to leave City with work to do to finish in the top eight of the Champions League group phase. More immediately, Guardiola will have to go to Anfield this weekend to play the Premier League leaders with a group of players who look chronically low on confidence. It’s now six games without a win and seven goals conceded in the space of four days.
The ending to the game was such a shock that it left Guardiola lost for words.
“It is not necessary to say anything to [the players], they know it perfectly,” Guardiola said. “It is what it is. It’s difficult to swallow now.
“We give away especially the first one and after we are not stable enough. The game was good, we played well, we scored three and could have scored more. We are a team who concede few, few goals over these eight or nine years. We cannot close the games. Now we rest one or two days and prepare for Anfield.”
For large parts of the first half, City played like a team trying to rediscover themselves. The swagger that has seen them win the last four Premier League titles has drained away during their worst run of form since 2006.
For a while, though, it looked like Erling Haaland would paper over the cracks. Much of the first-half performance looked awkward and disjointed until the Norwegian striker smashed in a penalty in the 44th minute.
It seemed to demoralise Feyenoord, who then conceded two more in eight minutes after half-time. Ilkay Gündoğan‘s deflected volley made it 2-0 before Matheus Nunes raced away down the right and crossed for Haaland to score his second of the night. He now has 51 goal involvements (goals and assists) in the Champions League — reaching the benchmark in 44 games, fewer than anyone else in the competition’s history.
The beauty of having such a prolific goal scorer is that he can cover up any number of problems.
Guardiola certainly thought he’d done enough to win the game, and with one eye on Liverpool, he took the opportunity to substitute Nathan Aké, Phil Foden and Gündoğan with more than 20 minutes to go. It left Nunes and James McAtee in the centre of midfield, and a Feyenoord team that looked devoid of any attacking ideas were suddenly emboldened.
Anis Hadj Moussa scored what looked like a consolation before substitute Santiago Giménez — returning from injury — bundled in a second with eight minutes to go.
In the wake of the 4-0 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, Guardiola branded his team “fragile.” And that’s exactly how they looked during a chaotic finale.
Igor Paixão chased a long ball over the top, Ederson came flying out to clear the danger only to be left in a heap on the floor. 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.
“If you’re from Feyenoord it was an unbelievable evening,” said coach Brian Priske. “It was a strange game. It was an unbelievable result. For me, they’re still the best team in the world. You always believe but we knew it was always going to be a difficult game. We don’t usually celebrate draws but this is a bit special.”
The travelling Feyenoord supporters spent the final few minutes chanting the name of former boss Arne Slot — now in charge of Liverpool — and singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Slot has got 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 game against Feyenoord, the Dutchman will be licking his lips in anticipation. Liverpool have scored two or more goals in each of their past six games. City, meanwhile, have conceded at least two in each of their past 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 gap to open up. His task now is to try to lift his players to ensure it doesn’t happen.
“We have to [win], we have to,” said Guardiola of Sunday’s match against Liverpool. “That is my job. We didn’t lose today. Everybody knows the situation. I don’t have to add absolutely anything. We are going to train [Wednesday], recover and prepare for the next game. 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 knife edge.