While the Giants pulled off the divisional upset against the host Packers to advance to the conference championship, the 49ers, who moved on after beating visiting New Orleans in an instant playoff classic, avoided a trip to top-seeded Green Bay to host the semifinal with New York.

This will mark the second time the two will square off in the NFC championship, the first was also a classic that basically ended Joe Montana’s career in the bay, and the 49ers’ attempt at the NFL’s first three-peat during the 1990-91 season.

More recently, the 49ers held off New York’s final comeback attempt deep in the red zone to win 27-20 in Week 10 of this season, and both teams were playing their best of the year at the time, much like they both are currently.

New York, however, was without one of its two-headed monsters in the backfield for the regular season matchup. Ahmad Bradshaw was injured, and his presence has proven to help the Giants when both he and Brandon Jacobs are healthy.

The 49ers top-ranked run defense will have a tougher test with Bradshaw in the lineup, but San Francisco’s pass defense may have to put together a better effort as Eli Manning passed for 311 yards.

San Fran’s secondary, led by pro bowlers Carlos Rogers (who had both interceptions of Manning in the Nov. ’11 game) and safety Dashon Goldson, surprised many against Drew Brees and the Saints in the divisional round, but after surrendering just 17 points through 54 minutes of play, they gave up two long touchdowns to the Saints in the final minutes.

The biggest surprise in that game came with the immediate response of 49er offense.

While settling for field goals in a majority of similar red zone situations throughout the year, San Francisco retalliated with two go-ahead touchdown drives to win.

If both teams put together their best efforts again, we could have another pre-Super Bowl classic.

Fun facts:

The New York Giants are attempting to become the first team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl after only winning nine regular-season contests. Also; The Packers’ divisional loss to the Giants, Green Bay’s fourth loss in its last six home playoff games, made them the first 15-win team to be one-and-done in NFL postseason history.

The Giants and 49ers have had many memorable playoff clashes in the last 25 years. A 49-3 Giants home playoff win in 1986 was followed by another Giants postseason win in January of 1991, as Matt Bahr’s five field goals ended San Francisco’s run for a third straight NFL championship.

The 49ers came back with a blowout and a close win of their own in the next two postseason matchups, beating the visiting Giants 44-3 in the 1993 divisionals before coming back from 24 points down in the 2002 wild-card to win 39-38.

The 49ers have played in a third of the NFC title games in the last three decades, winning (including the Super Bowl) in 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1994, while losing in 1983 to Washington, 1990 to the Giants, 1992 and 93 to Dallas, and 1997 against Green Bay.

History: The two have faced off 34 times since their first head-to-head in 1952, with each taking 17 wins. The 49ers hold just a 694-689 all-time points advantage.

New York won three straight meetings in 2005, 2007 and 2008 by an average of 16 points, but the 49ers’ won the last meeting in November of 2011 for their sixth of a seven-game winning streak. That ended the Giants’ run of six win in their previous seven games.

2011: Alex Smith threw one of his five total interceptions against the Giants in Week 10 of 2011.

49ers kicker David Akers made all four of his field goal attempts in that game as well, going on to an NFL record 44.

Quick observation: Both teams converted for a touchdown just once each in seven combined trips to the red zone. While New York was far better in the areas of third-down conversions and time of possession (35 minutes to SF’s 25), San Francisco made up for it with defensive takeaways and field position set up by pro bowl punter Andy Lee.

Forecast: The running game may decide the rematch at Candlestick Park with rain expected for the 3:30 p.m. game on FOX.

While the Giants are ranked in the Top 9 of the NFL in points, passing and total yards, they were last in rushing. The return of Bradshaw for the rematch will help, and expect Frank Gore to do much better than his six-attempt performance that netted zero yards.

Prediction: San Francisco 19, New York 13