In football, it doesn’t take long for perceptions to change.

Prior to Tuesday’s shock defeat at home to Rubin Kazan, the last time Barcelona took the pitch in the Champions League was Sept. 29 against Dynamo Kyiv.

As the Catalan press took every chance to remind its readers, this was the club’s first European match at home since winning the Champions League trophy in Rome in May. “Return of the Champions” screamed the headline in daily sports pub ‘Sport,’ complete with a photo of captain Carles Puyol hoisting the famed trophy after Barca’s defeat of Manchester United.

With that, the atmosphere was set for an expected night of magic at the Camp Nou. Barca supporters are not known as the most passionate in Spain – the Camp Nou, as massive as it is, rarely sells out and sometimes doesn’t even come close – but this was different. The announced crowd of just over 68,000 (in a 98,000-seat stadium) seemed larger than it was, and they were in it from the start.

And when Andres Iniesta unlocked the Dynamo Kyiv defense with a through ball to Lionel Messi 25 minutes in, the fans instinctively rose to their feet. They were not wrong, either – Messi cut in to his left, as always, and put his shot just past Dynamo keeper Oleksander Shovkovski at the near post.

It came as a bit of relief for the blaugrana supporters, who minutes earlier had seen a Dynamo goal disallowed for an offside call. The chants of “Meeeeeessi, Meeeeeeeesi” rained down on the Argentine who could do no wrong.

Fifteen minutes from time, it was Pedro’s turn to feel the love after scoring a belter with his left foot from just inside the box.

“Peeeeeeeedro, Peeeeeeeedro…”

Ten minutes later, Zlatan Ibrahimovic got as big a reaction as anybody as he walked off the pitch to be substituted. The Catalans have taken well to Ibrahimovic so far, and they seemed to want the big Swede to score every time he touched the ball. He nearly did a couple times, and found Pedro for his goal with a cutting pass.

“Iiiiiiiiiibra, Iiiiiiiiiiibra…”

Barca won, 2-0, and it easily could have been more, if not for some heroics from Shovkovski. Xavi was impeccable, Iniesta made his first start of the year, and the defense was near flawless. Puyol “is like a fine wine,” wrote Sport’s Josep Maria Casanovas the following day.

Barcelona hadn’t lost a game yet in the season. They could do no wrong. They were on top of the world.

Amazing how quick perceptions can change, no?

This is the second in a three-part series of first-person accounts of football in Spain from La Liga correspondent Mark Goodman.

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