When the Montreal Impact step into the “bee’s nest” that will be the sold out Estadio Azteca tonight, they’ll not only have to fight an angry Club America team coming off a 4-0 home loss on the weekend, but a team that is desperate to win this very competition. The Impact’s story is feel good. Club America’s is the need to be good. So how do Frank Klopas and company fight against all of the odds tonight?

First things first: Club America are so dangerous going forward. Their coach Gustavo Matosas is an out and out attacking minded coach. He has the players to execute that style well too in Oribe Peralta, Dario Benedetto and Darwin Quintero among others. The Impact have spent plenty of the build up to this match focusing on defense, and for good reason since they haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their knockout stage matches. They will need the best matches out of Laurent Ciman and Bakary Soumaré in order just to stay in this match. The altitude factor could also get to them, but their preparation in Mexico City leading up to this match might mitigate that somewhat.

One of the reasons why the Impact have made it this far is an uncanny knack for scoring away goals at critical moments. With Club America’s defensive frailties well noted (Paolo Goltz and Ventura Alvarado are both suspended for this match), there will be opportunities to counterattack swiftly, but the Impact will need to take advantage of the few chances they do get. Ignacio Piatti has shown what he can do in spurts during his brief career in Montreal, but he will absolutely need to be at his best tonight. Dominic Oduro is another one of those hot and cold players, and his hot streaks can be absolutely lethal. If he’s on his game tonight, his speed will be essential in Montreal’s counter-attack. And this is to say nothing of Jack McInerney and Kenny Cooper, who will have to provide the finish when they are given the opportunities.

What would be an ideal result for the Impact in this game? Keeping the score down would be a good start. If they can keep Club America to two goals or less, then they’ll have a fighting chance next Wednesday at the Olympic Stadium. If they are also able to nick an away goal as they’ve shown a knack for doing in this competition, that would be even better. Getting a result is somewhat inconceivable given the circumstances, but they managed to find a way to navigate around that against both Pachuca and Alajuelense. A 2-1 Club America win is a perfectly acceptable result and gives the Impact something to fight for when the scene shifts to an equally raucous Olympic Stadium next week.

Club America have already shown demonstratively that they need to win this competition. The Impact have decided (wisely) to throw their eggs into this basket even at the cost of their MLS form. Tonight will be a very tense 90 minutes for Impact fans and MLS fans alike, but the underdog role has suited Montreal just fine so far, why not tonight?

Oh, and #marquonslhistoire. Allez Montreal.