Antonio Conte mentioned Tottenham nonetheless want time to grow to be a European pressure after bowing out within the final 16 of the Champions League 1-0 on combination to AC Milan after a 0-0 draw on Wednesday. A European elimination scorching on the heels of an exit from the FA Cup means Spurs’ 15-year wait to win a trophy will lengthen for at the least one other season. Conte’s return to the touchline did not encourage a response from his facet as Tottenham had been toothless in assault and needed to play the ultimate 12 minutes a person down as Cristian Romero was despatched off for 2 bookable offences.

“I’m really sorry for the fans, but we cannot invent the win or to hope for a miracle one day that a trophy goes into our training ground,” mentioned Conte.

“We have to build and have patience. I understand the fans don’t have patience as for a long time Tottenham is not winning.”

Victory over two legs takes Milan into the quarter-finals for the primary time since 2012.

“We deserved this result, even though we could have scored more,” mentioned Milan striker Olivier Giroud.

“We showed quality, spirit, and we could have won tonight as well.”

Animated Conte
Kick-off was delayed by 10 minutes after the later arrival of either side on account of site visitors congestion, nevertheless it took far longer for the competition to get going.

Conte was again in cost after taking extra time after the primary leg to get better from gallbladder surgical procedure.

The Italian was his regular animated self and was proven a yellow card by referee Clement Turpin for his protestations at a reserving for Clement Lenglet.

However, his gamers lacked the identical vitality as Spurs did not rise to the event.

Tottenham have now received simply two of their final seven video games, together with defeat to second-tier Sheffield United within the FA Cup.

Conte’s contract expires on the finish of the season and he did little to quash hypothesis that he’ll go away on the finish of the marketing campaign.

“The situation is really clear. It is one year and three months since I became coach of Tottenham, I always said the same things,” added Conte.

“We need time and patience because we don’t have a solid foundation to be competitive to win in my opinion.

“At the second the membership is aware of very properly my ideas and I’ve a terrific relationship with my chairman, with (sporting director) Fabio Paratici, nevertheless it doesn’t suggest I do not inform them my imaginative and prescient.

“Now we have to finish the season. I’m happy to work in Tottenham but at the end we’ll make a decision.”

Only profligate ending by Milan saved Spurs from one other defeat on the night time.

Brahim Diaz scored the one aim of the tie and his jinking run contained in the Spurs field simply lacked the end as Fraser Forster‘s outstretched leg deflected the ball to security.

Spurs at the least pressured Mike Maignan right into a save 25 minutes from time as he tipped over Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg‘s strike.

Conte gambled by switching to a entrance 4 for the ultimate 20 minutes with Richarlison becoming a member of Harry Kane, Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-min up entrance.

But Kane’s solely likelihood to avoid wasting his facet got here deep in stoppage time when his header was properly saved by Maignan.

By that time, Spurs had been a person down on account of Romero’s indiscipline.

The Argentine noticed purple for the third time in his Spurs profession after lunging in on Theo Hernandez.

At the opposite finish Sandro Tonali wasted one other wonderful likelihood by going for aim himself with teammates in help earlier than Divock Origi’s effort got here again off the within of the put up.

But it didn’t matter because the seven-time European champions held agency to finish greater than a decade of ready to succeed in the final eight.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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