THE Champions League springs back into action tonight and there are some real mouth-watering ties to look forward to in the last 16. It’s often said this has become a two-tier competition. You have the group stage where Scottish football’s interest usually lies – as was the case with Celtic this season – and then you get to the knockout stage where the crème de la crème take centre stage.

There is no denying it; if you like quality football these ties - that will be played out over four nights this week and next - are unmissable. We have eight contests that all throw up intriguing storylines and, hopefully, 16 cracking matches. There is no doubting that the Champions League is a competition that increasingly favours the big clubs but we shouldn’t look past the point that it is also football at the highest level.

It all gets underway again this evening. I’ll be commentating on Benfica versus Borussia Dortmund, while on the other channel it will be the heavyweight clash between PSG and Barcelona. The game in Lisbon is a hard one to call as these are two teams who are very closely matched. It is fair to say it would be a surprise if either ended up winning the Champions League this season but both have talented squads and players to catch the eye.

The other match tonight is also fascinating as you have PSG, in danger of possibly not winning the French title for the first time since 2012, up against a Barcelona team trailing Real Madrid at the top of La Liga. For PSG, it will be interesting to see how Julian Draxler fares in such a big game following his move from Wolfsburg last month as I think the Parisians will be up against it over the two legs.

Maybe this isn’t the Barca team of a few years ago but it is when people start to doubt them that they start to really turn on the style. They are still a formidable outfit and PSG will have their hands full trying to deal with their many threats.

Tomorrow night we have another two potentially exciting ties. Bayern’s game with Arsenal is fascinating as the German side aren’t firing on all cylinders despite their seven-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga. I covered Bayern’s game against Ingolstadt at the weekend and there is no doubt they are vulnerable at the moment. Since they’ve come back from the winter break there hasn’t been one wholly convincing performance from them. They’ve been sleepwalking their way to results which isn’t what we usually expect from Bayern.

Arsenal will maybe curse their luck to have been handed such a tough knock-out tie having finally won their group but I’d say this might be their best chance to finally get past Bayern. The Carlo Ancelotti version of Munich is not as formidable as the one we watched under Pep Guardiola. They have a different style, are not quite as dominant on the passing front and not as penetrative in opening up opposing defences.

So I’d think this one is hard to predict but don’t write off Arsene Wenger’s men. I remember Jose Mourinho saying years ago that to win the Champions League you have to have an excellent team but you also have to be lucky. And Arsenal will have to hope good fortune shines on them over the next few weeks.

The fourth tie this week is between Real Madrid and Napoli and, although the Italians are going well domestically, I think Zinedine Zidane’s side will be too strong for them over two legs. In fact, at this stage I’d make Madrid favourites to go on and lift the trophy again. They have that extra motivation of trying to become the first team in the Champions League era to win it in back-to-back years, with Milan in 1989 and 1990 the last ones to win and then retain the old European Cup. There is an argument to say a first La Liga title in five years is more important for them having won the Champions League last year but I think Madrid will also be keen to advance on both fronts if they can.

It’s perhaps surprising that no team has managed to retain the Champions League but Madrid have a great chance of being the first to do so. They are one of four clubs operating at the highest plane of European football, with the others being their neighbours Atletico, Barcelona, and Bayern. And then there’s a little bit of a gap to some of the English clubs, PSG maybe and others like Dortmund and Juventus. But I’d be surprised if this year’s winners don’t come from Spain or Bavaria.