On Tuesday, Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola resume their quest for a second consecutive Champions League title. (Photo: Newscom)

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Barcelona re-starts their Champions League defense Tuesday, going to Germany to face a mid-table Bundesliga-side, Stuttgart.

If it sounds like I'm trying to portray that as a lop-sided match, I'm not as poor a writer as I thought.

If you had to rank the sixteen surviving Champions League sides 1-to-16, Barcelona should be one, and many would put Stuttgart close to the bottom.  Sure, Barcelona finally lost in Spain, and Stuttgart has improved under Christian Gross, but it would be far more than a Lyon-Real Madrid-surprise to see Stuttgart pull a similar upset over Barça.  Stuttgart is not as talented as Lyon, and coming out of the weakest Champions League group, they are not as proven.

Barcelona should be without Xavi Hernández, Dani Alves and Seydou Keita, but coming off a 4-0 weekend drubbing of Racing, the Atlético result has been shown a fluke.

In today's other match, Bordeaux goes to Pireaus to face Olympiacos.  If Bordeaux is on their game, they are legitimate contenders (though far from favorites) to win this competition.  By on their game, I mean the team that's won their last two matches by a 7-2 aggregate.

If we see the Bordeaux side that has ten 1-0 wins this season, Olympiacos could actually eliminate the French champions.  They have players like Diogo and Dudu, both of whom are injury doubts today.  Even if they do not play, Argentines Cristian Ledesma and Jesus Dátolo along with Kostas Mitroglou can find a goal, and with talent in defense featuring Greek internationals Vasilis Torosidis and Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Sweden's Olaf Mellberg and goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis, Olympiacos has the ability to keep the match close.

It is incumbent on Bordeaux to stay ambitious.  If they slip back into 1-0-mode, Olympiacos can steal this tie, even if they have to do so in France.