On followfollow.com we have conducted three polls in the past week regarding our possible Champions League opponents.
For the purpose of the polls we assumed Rangers would remain in Pot 3 - we could move up to Pot 2 depending on results - check out Bert Kassies site for the stats - http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seedcl2009.html
We asked three sets of questions:-
Which is the weakest team in each pot?
Which is the toughest team in each pot?
Which team do you most want to play?
THE WEAKEST TEAM
If, according to our voters, the draw favours us then Rangers will be in a group comprising-
Seville
Sporting Lisbon
Rangers
Unirea Urziceni.
In Pot 1 Seville polled 55%, Bayern Munich 23% and AC Milan 14%.
In Pot 2 Sporting polled 48%, AZ Alkmaar 38% and CSKA Moscow 8%
In Pot 4 the Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni (coached by Dan Petrescu) polled 60%, FC Zurich 12% and Maccabi Haifa 11%. The Russians of Rubin Kazan were only i vote behind Haifa.
THE STRONGEST GROUP
Our Group of Death would be:-
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Rangers
Wolfsburg
As two Spanish teams can't be drawn in the same group either Chelsea or Inter Milan would be alternatives.
In Pot 1 Barca topped the poll with 78%, Chelsea were second with 7% and Manchester United 6%
In Pot 2 - Real Madrid 86%, Inter Milan 9% and Lyon 2%.
Pot 4 - Wolfsburg 84%, Standard Liege 5%, Rubin Kazan and Copenhagen got 3% each. Should be noted when we played Stuttgart
THE GROUP THE FANS REALLY WANT
We also asked which team from each pot fans wanted based on any factor they wanted - ease of opponents, glamour, travel, etc. The result:-
Bayern Munich
Real Madrid
Rangers
Unirea Urziceni
I was surprised a bit by Bayern Munich - from reading posts I think it's a combination of three main factors - they have the lowest coefficient in Pot 1 and hence should be the easiest; the new stadium they play in seems to have caught the imagination; Oktoberfest!
Real is obviously for the glamour!
Having seen Unirea play Morton pre-season I can well understand people wanting to wrap up points from them. They are a very tall and athletic looking team but displayed little heart for the battle.
How the voting went.
Pot 1 - Bayern Munich 32%, Chelsea 19%, Seville 16% and AC Milan 15%
Pot 2 - Real Madrid 42%, AZ Alkmaar 27% and Sporting Lisbon 19%
Pot 4 - Unirea Urziceni 27%, FC Zurich 18%, Standard Liege 12% and Maccabi Haifa 11%