Poll Reveals There's One Team Liverpool Fans Don't Want to Face in Champions League Group Stages

The draw for the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League group stages takes place next week in Monaco as excitement, and worry alike, builds among fans. 

Liverpool's performances in the Champions League last season will lead to many opposition fans hoping not to face the Reds at any point in the competition. But a recent poll conducted by the Liverpool Echo showed Liverpool fans are also looking to avoid a particular side in the group stages.   

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20 percent of Liverpool fans, still recovering from the Reds' catastrophe in Kiev, voted for Real Madrid as the one side they'd least like to face in the group stage. Gareth Bale's early season form may have something to do with that too. But surprisingly, Madrid weren't the team most voted for by Liverpool fans. 

Barcelona earned 21 percent of the votes to beat Madrid by 1 percent in the poll. Liverpool could have played Barcelona in the tournament's semi-finals last season had Roma not pulled off one of the most incredible comebacks in recent Champions League history. The votes show Liverpool fans are keen to avoid Barcelona once more. 

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Liverpool remain the only English side side beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Barcelona won 1-0 the last time the two teams met in the Champions League back in 2007, but Liverpool's first-leg 2-1 win at the Camp Nou sent the Reds through to the Quarter-Finals. 

Facing Barcelona would mean a Liverpool reunion for Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho. Yet the votes suggest Liverpool fans are not ready to meet up with their exes.  

There was another side who made 21 percent of the votes. It seems 21 percent of Liverpool fans had logistics in mind when voting for Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow.