Antonio Conte has admitted that he is feeling better having resumed an operational role as Tottenham’s head coach and backed a home atmosphere to help his side past AC Milan.
Conte and Spurs will try to overturn the 1-0 deficit after the first leg at San Siro in which Brahim Diaz scored the only goal of the game early on and Stefano Pioli’s men followed that with an excellent defensive performance.
It would be a tough ask for Milan to keep Spurs’ attacking forces quiet again – especially in front of a packed out home crowd in north London – but the lead does at least force the home side to come onto them a bit.
On the eve of the Champions League match against the Rossoneri, Conte spoke to reporters about the game and his return from Italy where he stayed for a while after his gallbladder operation.
“We want to move forward and I hope to feel the right atmosphere tomorrow at the stadium. I’m counting on our fans because we will play against a team that won the title in Italy last year,” he said (via Mediaset).
“I have good sensations, for me it’s important to get back to work with my players and my staff. From a distance, I’ve tried to stay close to him, but being present is totally different. I have to thank my staff, but now I’m really happy to be back.
“Perhaps I overestimated my body and myself. Now I’m fine and I’ve recovered energy and I need to gain weight, but otherwise my sensations are good. I try to transfer my energy to my players. It’s an important match for us.
“It is something that can happen. After the operation I discovered that many of my friends had undergone the same operation. The difference is that in my case it was an emergency operation, unplanned.
“They feel so much bad news and when they told me that I just had to have an operation I felt happy, you never know what can happen. It hasn’t changed my way of thinking: now I repeat that I have to be close to the players and breathe the atmosphere of the training camp.”
On Tottenham’s current form and the Champions League challenge, he added: “Exiting the FA Cup wasn’t a good result because we could have tried to fight for the trophy this season. But tomorrow we have a very important match and we have to be positive, we have to learn from our mistakes. I hope that if we have another bad match the players can learn, because when you win you are happy, but it is from defeats that you grow.
“We live with pressure because when it’s there it means you’re levelling up. Let’s not forget where we came from, last year we were in the Conference League and today we’re in the Champions League.
“We won the group and tomorrow we the possibility of beating Milan and going through. If you ask me if I want to win the Champions League, I’ll say yes, but then there’s the reality. Let’s go on game after game.
“If we fight to be competitive to win something, I think we’ve achieved our goal. Tottenham need to have this goal in mind, to fight every season to win something important. It’s not easy and I think we are in the country where winning is more difficult.
“The Premier League is the top and many clubs want to win it, many improve year after year and you have to be prepared to improve your level. Every season I want to be competitive to win something: if it doesn’t happen, I’m not satisfied.”
