Bhubaneswar is a little surprised. There's unusual buzz in the Odisha capital for the past week - something the city has never witnessed. Queues outside a sports stadium is not routine at a place that sees long lines only for entry into its ancient temples. It certainly has been out of the ordinary. In such a scenario, an India vs Pakistan hockey match for a place in the Champions Trophy final is in one word: Humongous.
People here have for the first time experienced what it's like watching their country play. For them, watching an India-Pakistan game at the stadium is like a genie granting a wish. And the long queues outside the Kalinga Stadium at Nayapalli Road is evidence of that.
India's entry into the semis following their win over Belgium sent fans into an overdrive in search of a ticket, leading to queues as far as a kilometre right from the morning of pre-match day, as the buses carrying the two teams for practice moved in and out of the stadium.
Surely those expectant fans put pressure on players, especially the hosts.
"The pressure is going to be on India since they are the home team," said Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh. "We came here with a goal to reach the semis, which we have achieved," he said.
But Pakistan, with due respect to their quarter-final win over title-favourites Belgium, have looked the least impressive team of the tournament having lost all three pool games.
However, they brought their A game out when it mattered the most to script a 4-2 Dutch heist. Before that, they had lost to Australia, Belgium and England to finish at the bottom of Pool A.
Muhammad Irfan is the joint top-scorer with three goals after his two decisive strikes in the quarter-final, which put the game beyond Netherlands' reach. But skipper Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Bhutta are equally dangerous when it comes to scoring goals.
India's goal-scoring flag has been carried by Akashdeep Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh with two goals each. However, Akashdeep, who didn't celebrate his goal against Belgium in the quarter-final, has been guilty of missing several opportunities, so have centre-forward Ramandeep Singh and right winger SV Sunil.
Captain Sardar Singh has been in his elements during India's back-to-back wins against the Netherlands and Belgium but left much to be desired in team's last-minute defeat against Germany (1-0) and Argentina (4-2).
Sardar, India's inspirational centre-half, will have to shepherd his troops intelligently against Pakistan who will also be looking to score on the breaks, just like they surprised Netherlands. But India's stand-in coach Roelant Oltmans believes his boys can create history.
India have never been in a Champions Trophy final, and a win on Saturday will not only assure them a second medal in the tournament's 36-year history but also a shot at their maiden title. India won bronze in 1982, beating Pakistan 5-4, but lost the third-match playoff to their archrivals four times after that.
"This team can create history," Oltmans said on the eve of the match. "We want to show the world that we are right up there with the very best," the Dutchman added. "We hope to execute our strategies and keep emotions in check."
Fireworks begin 1930 IST on Saturday. Who will you put your money on?
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