The Montreal Impact hope to celebrate a win after their home game against Mexico's Santos Laguna on Wednesday night. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

It's the biggest game in the history of the Montreal Impact.

The eyes of soccer fans across Canada will be on Montreal on Wednesday when the Impact host Mexican side Santos Laguna in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals (CBC Bold, CBCSports.ca, 8 p.m. ET).

Founded in 1993, the Impact usually play their home games at the outdoor Stade Saputo, which seats just under 13,000, but the cold and snowy weather that Montreal routinely sees during February forced the team indoors to Olympic Stadium.

That worked to the Impact's advantage though, as the club said Tuesday it has sold 50,000 tickets for the Santos contest, the first in a two-game, home-and-away playoff.

Not since the days of the defunct North American Soccer League, when the Montreal Manic drew 58,000 fans for a playoff game against the Chicago Sting in 1981, has the city been swept up in soccer fever quite like this.

The Impact's strong showing in the first round of the Champions League — where it posted impressive victories over Trinidadian champions Joe Public FC and Olimpia of Honduras, and earned a credible draw with Mexico's Atlante — has led to new interest in the club from Montreal sports fans.

An opportunity to shine

"We've opened people's eyes with our success in this tournament and that was a big step for us because we've convinced people that we can play at a high level and we've seen the response," Impact general manager Nick De Santis told CBCSports.ca.

You could hardly blame the Impact players if the thought of playing in front of such a large crowd puts butterflies in their stomachs, but goalkeeper Matt Jordan insists the team is focused on the task at hand.

"We look at this as a great opportunity and not as a high-pressure situation. We want to do our best with the opportunity we've worked so hard to obtain," Jordan said.

The Impact and Santos come into the game at different stages of preparedness.

Santos arrived from Mexico on Monday, less than 24 hours after a 2-0 victory over Monterrey in the Mexican Primera, and currently sits in 12th place in Mexico's first division with a 2-2-3 record.

Montreal, on the other hand, hasn't played a competitive contest since Oct. 28, a 2-1 loss to Mexico's Atlante in the first round of the Champions League.

The Impact did, however, recently completed a two-week training camp in Italy where it went undefeated in five exhibition games against lower-division Italian teams.

Jordan believes the Impact's Italian sojourn makes up for the team's lack of competitive games.

"It was very positive and beneficial for us to play against teams that were in the middle of their seasons, because we couldn't just ease into things and that forced us to step things up and play fast," Jordan explained.

Boasting such explosive players as Ecuadorian striker Christian Benitez and attacking midfielder Daniel Luduena of Argentina, Santos is a technically proficient team that uses a lot of quick and short passes.

Weakness detected

But they do have one glaring weakness, according to De Santis.

"I think they struggle to defend against free kicks, corner kicks and balls played into the penalty box because of their lack of size. I don't think they're as good defensively as they are on offence, so that's something we hope to take advantage of," De Santis said.

De Santis added: "Having 50,000 people in the stands, playing on turf which the Mexican are probably not as use to as we are, these are all things that work in our favour and give us a bit of an edge."

Jordan said the key for Montreal is to play its normal counter-attacking style, be defensively organized and win the physical battles in midfield.

"It's going to be very difficult, there's no about it," stated Jordan. "It's a huge challenge we have ahead of us because they're a very talented team with a lot of dangerous and skilful players. It's going to be battle and war from the opening whistle, and that's what we're preparing for."

The second game of the quarter-final is set for March 5 in Mexico.