Antonio Conte has played down Tottenham’s chances of winning the FA Cup even though he would like to win it but maintains Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool shows how difficult it will be for his side to win silverware this season.
Conte reached consecutive finals during his two seasons at Chelsea, winning the competition in 2017, and says he would love to continue the run with Spurs.
Harry Kane brace against Brighton is enough to set a meeting with Middlesbrough in FA Cup fifth-round tie as Tottenham moving forward to end their trophy drought.(Getty Images)
But he warned of the difficulty of competing for silverware after Liverpool’s breathless win over Chelsea on penalties.
Despite the lack of goals, The match was a pulsating affair that was high on drama and made for entertaining the full packed crowd in Wembley stadium.
“To win trophies in England is very difficult,” Conte said.
“I’m not desperate [to win the FA Cup] but you know very well I want to win.
“At the moment it’s easier to win in Europe than England. When you start to play the quarter-final, semi-final, final, you have to fight against a top, top team that probably could play the final of the Champions League. It’s important to continue to go through in this trophy.
For sure this has to be a boost to push us to improve the level, to be competitive, to try to meet a trophy as soon as possible. Because if I speak about the future, you don’t understand the time that we need. For sure it’ll be important to improve the level and fight to win a trophy. But I repeat, to win a trophy now is very difficult.”
“It’s a great competition and previously I was lucky to reach the final two years in a row,” Conte added.
I’d like to continue this tradition for Tottenham, especially for my players, especially the fans and the club. Not only for me. But you know this trophy is not simple or easy, and tomorrow we have to face Middlesbrough, a tough game.”
“Middlesbrough eliminated Manchester United from this competition. I want to see continuity in the performance and result of my players. We need continuity to show that in defeat we are learning something more. I hope tomorrow to see a good game, good football, at the same time with a great desire to go to the next round.”
” Also I want to celebrate the game between Chelsea and Liverpool yesterday, it was a great, exciting game to watch. This also underlines how difficult it is to win trophies in this country. It was amazing for me and all the people in other countries to watch this game.”
Spurs visit Championship side Middlesbrough in Tuesday’s fifth-round tie, having not won the FA Cup since 1991and will again be without injured quartet Oliver Skipp, Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Moura and Japhet Tanganga at the Riverside Stadium.