Barcelona transform into a completely different team at Camp Nou

The Catalan club have shown split personalities in home and away matches this season, undergoing a curious character change when playing in front of their own fans.In the last four seasons, the football world has fallen at the feet of Barcelona. Ever since the arrival of Pep Guardiola on the Blaugrana bench in the summer of 2008, the team have achieved a brilliant blend of fantastic football and hugely impressive results. Not only have the Catalans won everything, over and again, but they have done it with an entertaining brand of attacking football - on any occasion, and on any pitch.However, following three seasons of non-stop success, Barca find themselves in an unusual situation: six points behind Real Madrid in La Liga and with a complicated Champions League quarter-final tie against AC Milan, champions of Italy, still to be resolved. So what has changed? And what conclusions can be drawn ahead of Tuesday night's meeting with Milan?One of the key factors in Barca's dip in form recently is the disparity in their performances at home compared to when they play away from Camp Nou. Ever since the beginning of the Guardiola era, Barca have made their stadium a fortress; in that period, the Catalans have won 62 of their 72 league games and lost just three, two of which came in Pep's debut season. In the current campaign, they have won all but one Primera Division match at Camp Nou, ceding a draw to Sevilla as Lionel Messi saw a last-minute penalty saved by Javi Varas.In the Champions League, their Camp Nou record is equally impressive. The Blaugrana have lost just twice at home in four seasons under Pep, going down 3-2 with a team full of fringe players in their last group match in 2008-09 after already winning the section, before falling by a single strike to Rubin Kazan the following year. In that same time, teams like Chelsea, Inter, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and even Milan have all been unable to beat Barca on their own patch in Europe's premier club competition. And this season, only Milan have avoided defeat at the famous stadium, snatching a last-gasp 2-2 draw in the group stages back in September.Before this campaign, Barca's numbers away from home were just as impressive. In the three previous seasons under Guardiola, the Catalans won 40 of their 57 league matches on the road, drawing 12 and losing just five times. This term, however, Barca have already lost 1-0 at Getafe and 3-2 at Osasuna, while drawing a further five fixtures. And the points dropped away from home have seen Madrid move clear in La Liga, with Mourinho's men boasting an impressive record of 12 wins, two draws and one sole defeat on the road in the Primera Division.Barca's stalemate at Milan in the first leg of the sides' quarter-final tie could, then, at least be considered as "normal" in the circumstances, while the Catalans should be seen as clear favourites in the second match given their impressive home from this season.Previous evidence also supports this, because Barcelona usually find their brilliant best in the most important moments, as Arsenal can testify. Arsene Wenger's side twice thought they had found the formula to defeat Messi, Xavi & Co., but were blown away by the Argentine's four-goal show in 2009-10 following a 2-2 draw in London. The Gunners also lost out 3-1 last season after a 2-1 win at the Emirates had raised hopes of a triumph for the Premier League side in Catalunya.Wenger's men are not the only ones to have suffered the might of Barca at Camp Nou following promising first-leg results. Stuttgart and Lyon both went the way of Arsenal after earning draws at home in the first match of their respective knockout ties against the Catalans, while Inter escaped with a narrow loss to make the final in 2009-10 following a 3-1 win in Milan, with Mourinho describing the result as the "most beautiful defeat" of his coaching career.