Opening Day for baseball is Sunday, but baseball isn't the only thing kicking back up next week. After a nearly three week lay-off, Champions League soccer gets back at it.

In between we have some good soccer to tide us over, World Cup qualifiers, El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid and Leicester City chasing an improbable English Premier League title. However now we get back to the creme de la creme. Funny how the English league is the league that generates the most money and widely regarded as the best in the world, yet has only one team left in the final 8, Manchester City. The Portuguese league also has one team left - Benfica - for what it's worth.

Spain has their top three teams - Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid - Germany has two teams, and Paris Saint-Germain represents France. That said, let's break down the match ups.

Barcelona - Atletico Madrid

These teams have become all too familiar with each other over the years as Atletico has risen to a regular title contender in Spain. While they have not proven to have solved the Catalan riddle yet, they have always competed and never keeled over for Messi and co. That's to say, they have never suffered a blowout defeat a la their cross-town rivals Real Madrid.

If you follow this blog at all you are well up to date with Barcelona's top notch form this season. They stumbled a bit heading into the international break, but no doubt will give Atletico a tough test. Diego Simeone's side have had a tough time scoring, although Fernando Torres has started to show some signs of life, although they will need more than a sign of life to defeat Luis Enrique's Barcelona.

Bayern Munich - Benfica

This may be the match to pick an upset on, Pep Guardiola is on the way out in Munich - somewhat unceremoniously depending on what fan you ask - and Portuguese teams have snuck up on bigger clubs in the past. Surely Benfica will take an approach aimed at controlling possession, keeping the ball off the feet and firepower Bayern possess in all corners of the field. 

Benfica is shooting for a third straight Portuguese title, with a somewhat comfortable lead over Sporting Lisboa. However Bayern has too much talent and Guardiola is putting all his focus into the hoisting the one trophy that has eluded him in Munich.

Real Madrid - Wolfsburg

Although Real Madrid sit in third place of the Spanish league and have not won a league title since Jose Mourinho was on the sideline, they could easily win any other league Barcelona does not play in. Thus when people see them matched up against a Wolfsburg side that occupies the eighth spot in the German league table, they tend to put their money on Madrid.

Wolfsburg's boss has come out and said that his team cannot respect Madrid too much, which tells me that his team may already be intimidated before they step on the pitch. Not a good sign before the first leg even begins.

Paris Saint-Germain - Manchester City

This is the wild card of the entire quarterfinal round

PSG has a 25 (!) point lead in their domestic league. However they did lose and draw to Real Madrid in the group stage, a Madrid side coached by Rafa Benitez who was starting to see his authority unravel at the Bernabeu. Man City on the other hand sits in fourth place of the EPL and have manager problems of their own. Manuel Pellegrini is under scrutiny for not validating ownership's spending with any Champions League success, despite league and domestic cup trophies. Pep Guardiola is already signed and picking out a place in Manchester for his move this summer, so it will be interesting to see if Man City's players fight to give their current coach a triumphant send off.

There it is, action kicks off Tuesday with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid playing their first leg in Barcelona.