Barcelona plays 1st game at Camp Nou in over 2 years with Europe's biggest stadium at half capacity

The game is the first to be played here since May 2023, after which the venue was shut for a major overhaul that the indebted club hopes will soon start boosting revenues. For the past 900 days, Barcelona played its home games at the municipally owned 55,000-seat Olympic Stadium located atop a hill overlooking the city.

There is still significant work before the new-look Camp Nou is finished and ready to hold 105,000 fans.

The top tier remains mostly a skeleton of metal and concrete beams and pillars; huge construction cranes loom over the stadium and are visible from the stands, and there are areas that look like a construction site.

But Barcelona still celebrated the day with fireworks followed by blue-and-burgundy smoke just minutes before the game.

“It has been two years at the (Olympic Stadium) and it wasn’t easy, the atmosphere wasn’t the same, you could tell it wasn’t Camp Nou,” the 36-year-old fan Carlos Narváez said. “This is like coming home. I am sure the players will feel that way, just like we fans do. You can see how excited everyone is.”

Work on upgrading Camp Nou began in June 2023 to repair, modernize and expand a venue that previously had a capacity of 99,000. The highly indebted club secured 1.45 billion euros (then $1.6 billion) from multiple investors to undertake the remodeling project.

Barcelona had originally planned to be back playing games at Camp Nou as early as November 2024 to coincide with the club’s 125th anniversary. But the date was pushed back several times, and the club has not said when it now expects the stadiium work to be completed. The club says it plans to seek permission from authorities to open more seating as work progresses.

Earlier this month, over 20,000 fans turned out to watch Barcelona’s first practice back at Camp Nou.

Barcelona also received authorization from UEFA this week to host Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou on Dec. 9 in the league phase of the Champions League.

AP video journalist Hernán Múñoz contributed to this report.