San Francisco 49ers vs Green Bay Packers: Where the NFC Championship game will be decided

Two of the NFL’s biggest franchises will go head-to-head on the west coast on Sunday night, looking to win the NFC Championship and earn a spot at Super Bowl LIV in Miami.

The San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers have won nine Super Bowl titles between them, but neither has even reached the sport’s biggest game since the 2012 season.

To preview what should be a thriller, Standard Sport spoke to Morten Andersen, the NFL’s all-time leading appearance-maker, and picked out three key areas where the game could be won and lost.

Who will win the quarterback battle?

The 49ers have Jimmy Garoppolo as their quarterback. Jimmy G spent the first period of his career as back-up to Tom Brady at the Patriots, before being traded to San Fran in 2017. He tore his ACL early in the 2018 season, but returned to be an ever-present for a resurgent franchise this year.

Andersen says: “Garoppolo has really been amazing and I was not a big Garoppolo fan. I thought he had to come back from that injury and he has absolutely been amazing and flourished in that offensive system. They're going to be hard to beat.”

The Packers, meanwhile, can call upon one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time in Aaron Rodgers. But for all his plaudits, the 36-year-old still has just one Super Bowl ring to his name, and is under big pressure to deliver another.

Andersen says: “I'm not going to count Rodgers out because every time you doubt him he comes back and bites you on the arse at the end of the game.

“I see him as a guy that's able to isolate himself and play the game freely, I just don't see him being affected by outside pressure. He's very confident, he knows his ability and he knows his weapons.

“I don't see him buckling under the moment at all, he's not going to go out there and think, 'This might be my last time in a Championship game, this might be my last chance to make another Super Bowl.'”

Can the 49ers defence keep up their stingy form?

The San Francisco 49ers were phenomenal on the defensive side of the ball this season, second only to the Patriots and boasting the best pass defence of any team in the entire league.

Andersen says: “The Niners have seen a resurgence with a really good defense, the sacks and the pressures that people are getting.

“[Defensive end] Nick Bosa, just to mention one guy, is incredible, rookie of the year, but you just got depth in every position on that defense, and then there’s their ability to get pressure on Rodgers – it’s hard to throw the forward pass when you’re laying on your back.”

In a game of tiny margins, will experience prevail?

These two sides met in the regular season, with the San Francisco romping away with a 37-8 win back in November. However, a championship game stands as a new challenge, and while, in Rodgers, the Packers have a leader who has experience of the biggest games, this is unchartered territory for this iteration of the 49ers.

Andersen says: “Experience is important. I was in one Super Bowl and we weren’t ready, none of us had been there - well, Cornelius Bennett had been there with Buffalo four times and lost - I wasn't ready for that big stage.

“It's going to be a hell of a football game - that's a three-point game, a field goal game, to me. I'm going to go Niners because of that defence, but it could absolutely go either way. One turnover at a crucial moment, one explosive play, Adams going to the house, one missed tackle, one missed field goal.”

Andersen was speaking to Standard Sport in his role as an ambassador for betting comparison site BonusCodeBets.co.uk.