Antonio previews Chelsea in second leg of semi-final
Tue 11 January 2022, 21:13|
Tottenham Hotspur
“It’s not easy… but we want to try to give everything.” That’s the message from Antonio Conte as we get ready to attempt to overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit in part two of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday (7.45pm UK).
We’ve got it all to do against our London rivals after gifting them two first-half goals at Stamford Bridge last week, Kai Havertz’s shot diverting home off Davinson Sanchez before Japhet Tanganga’s attempt at a headed clearance went in off Ben Davies for an own goal by the Welsh international.
Crucially, though, it’s only 2-0 – and we’ve got 90 minutes to try to turn things around as we look to reach a second final in as many years.
“For sure it’s an important game, the second leg of a semi-final of a trophy – we are working well to try to prepare in the best possible way,” Antonio told Spurs TV after training on Tuesday.
“In the first game, we lost 2-0 and I think we deserved to lose the game. We conceded two goals in a way that, for sure, we can improve and to try, about the mistakes, in the future to find a better solution. When you start and you lost the first game 2-0, it's not easy, but at the same time we want to try to give everything on the pitch, to show personality, to show character, to show the will and the desire to fight. This is very important and it will be very important tomorrow.
“We know very well that they are a really good and important team in this moment. They won the Champions League last season, they tried to improve their team and their squad with good investment this summer but at the same time we want to continue to improve and to show, first of all to us, that we are improving, that our work is going well. We know that it’s an important game and we want to try to play a good game and try to give everything.”
It was put to Antonio that this is the first of two huge London derbies coming up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week, with Arsenal set to visit in the Premier League on Sunday. But he insisted we’re taking it one game at a time.
“There are four massive games before we finish this tough, busy period for us,” he said. “Don't forget, we’ve played a lot of games and it’s not easy, especially if you play almost always with the same players. But in this case, you have to go step by step, game by game and tomorrow we have an important game. Then after the game we’ll start to think of the other games before the break.”
