Our ex-players talk about the game at home to Real Sociedad

"If Paris are in the right mood, they'll go through." That's how Bernard Mendy, who played for Paris from 2000 to 2008, is approaching our double header against the team from the Basque Country before the first leg gets the tie underway at the Parc des Princes this evening.

Playing the first leg at home could prove to be key according to Mendy: "We could seal our path through at the Parc des Princes, but we could also get a result at their place. The main thing is to play to our strengths. When you're playing at home with that 12th man – the ultras, of course, but also the whole stadium pushing you and entire families coming along to support you – it just lifts you up. Having played here myself, when you walk into this stadium and walk in front of those fans, you're duty-bound to excel yourself."

"It'll be difficult, just like any Champions League last-16 game is," says Patrick Colleter, who plied his trade for PSG between 1991 and 1996. The former defender remains confident, though, not least because he's enjoying the capital club's performances as well as manager Luis Enrique's approach to games: "I think that this season, the way in which the team is preparing for and approaching games is different to how it's been in the past, and the manager is the one who's brought that in."

Meanwhile, Bonaventure Kalou, a striker for Paris Saint-Germain between 2005 and 2007, is keeping everyone in check: "Real Sociedad are a very good side, and they certainly aren't here by chance. They concede very few goals and play good football, so all of our players will need to be at their best."

Tonight's game will naturally be a tight one until the very end, then, but with it getting the second half of PSG's European campaign up and running.