Madrid - With a quarter of an hour left in Tuesday's Barcelona-Dynamo Kiev Champions League clash, there was an air of unease and uncertainty in the massive Camp Nou. Barca were 1-0 up and playing their usual smooth, silky, attractive passive game - but the second goal would not come.
In addition, Thierry Henry and Bojan Krkic were missing through injury and Andres Iniesta had been taken off at half-time, after making his first start after an injury-ruined summer.
Xavi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi were looking weary. So the question was: who possessed the spark, imagination and craft to deal the killer blow to well-drilled Dynamo?
The emphatic answer came in the 76th minute. Little Pedro Rodriguez, who had come on for Iniesta, took a short pass from Ibrahimovic, deftly moved the ball on to his left foot close to the penalty spot - and calmly made it 2-0 with a low far-post drive.
The Camp Nou celebrated, not only a classy goal but also the fact that a new star had been found for the sparkling Barca constellation.
In fact, it was more a case of "deja vu" than of witnessing a new phenomenon.
The same thing had happened in the European Supercup showpiece against Shakhtar Donetsk in Monaco in August. With the game seemingly bound for a penalty shootout, with the Barca forwards unable to penetrate a solid Shakhtar defence, Pedro played a clever one-two with Messi and scored the crucial goal.
Pedro, 22, is one of the many youth products used by coach Josep Guardiola to reinforce a squad which looks slightly short on depth.
Last week Guardiola admitted that his squad is "a little short", but qualified this by saying that "it is of a very high quality."
The European champions tried to sign a left-winger last summer but could not find the right man at the right time. Therefore, Pedro will continue to be used, either from the start - as in Saturday's 2-0 win away to Malaga - or coming off the bench in the second half, in order to test the weary full-backs.
Pedro is something of a throwback to an earlier, more romantic era: a genuine winger with the speed and dribbling skills to get past his man and get to the byeline - or instead cut inside and shoot.
He is nominally left-footed, though almost as strong with his right - as Shakhtar will testify.
Guardiola normally uses him out on the left, particularly when Henry and Iniesta have been missing through injury. Last season, though, he was also used on the right, when Messi was given a well-earned rest.
Pedro hails from the island of Tenerife and is the latest product of the rich Canary Island school of skilful, thoughtful ball players - a school which started with 1950s Real Madrid and Spain star Luis Molowny.
At the end of the Dynamo game he unassumingly said that "the three points are more important than my goal."
He went on to express the hope that "there will be more of them (goals) coming up, and more appearances for me."
Guardiola will surely make sure that this will be the case.
