antonio conte happy
That was a great first-half performance on the whole, but not so good in the second? Were you worried you lost some of the control?
It is difficult to start from the end of this game because we played a really good game, despite conceding a goal, that we could be much better in this situation, but our reaction was an important reaction and we created many chances to score. We scored three times and Trapp was their best player in the whole game. That is the positive aspect from the game. The negative aspect is the final part and it has to be a big lesson for everybody, for me, for the players. The game finishes when the referee whistles three times. In the last part of the game, everybody conceded the game ended and for this reason we made a big mistake. We conceded a corner they scored, then we had the opportunity to score the penalty but we missed the penalty. When we missed the penalty honestly, I was a bit scared, because I thought everything can happen. We are talking about a really good performance but the final part we have to take a big lesson, everybody. Myself and the players, everybody conceded the game ended. Maybe also the stadium and the fans. It was an important win for us, now we are leading the group, everything is in our hands. We have the chance with the next game with a win to go through the next round. For us, that would be a great achievement. That was our first target in this season to go through to the next round in the Champions League. Now our focus has to be on Saturday because I tried to exploit this situation, I tried to give a bit of rest to players. We have tomorrow to rest and then on Friday we have to prepare the game against Everton. An important game for us, I think Everton didn’t start the season well but now they have good balance. They are a strong team, Frank Lampard is a really good manager and they are doing a really good job,. For sure, we have to be at our best for the game on Saturday.
You said you have to learn lessons yourself, what would you do differently?
It is very difficult to explain. For sure the lesson has to be that no one has to concede the game and also if you are leading 3-1, you are playing against 10 men and everything seems on the right path, but football is difficult. It is difficult, now we are talking with a smile because we won. But imagine if this game finished a draw. That would have been a disaster.
You sound like you’ve lost your voice a bit from shouting at the end?
Honestly, our final part was, nobody was expecting that type of situation. Honestly I felt the danger. I felt the danger and for this reason I tried to be involved, to shout, to call the players to be focused, to try to protect the result because for us the win was really, really important. Now I repeat that everything is in our hands. With a draw it would have been really difficult and in the next home game you risk losing after against Marseille. Now with a win everything is in our hands in the next game.
With the positives you had Son smiling again and he and Kane playing well together and that wonderful second goal from Son, you must be happy about that?
Yeah, yeah but in the final part of the game maybe we risked cancelling out everything we did during the game. I think we played a really good game with a lot of good combinations and we created many chances. I think Trapp was the best player for Eintracht Frankfurt, but you know that what kept it from being impressive was the final part. Everything could happen and for this reason it has to be a big lesson for us to avoid next time, to be focused until the end.
Kane and Son showed their personality to win an important game, what’s the key to their partnership working so well?
I think that for us it was really, really important the first leg that we played against Eintracht Frankfurt. In that game we could win but we didn’t exploit many important situations. In this game we had two days to work and to prepare situations to hurt them and I think the position of Harry was really, really important. Today I asked him to stay in a specific position. In my opinion he played in a really fantastic way and he made our system. He scored and he could have scored the second penalty. The combination was good [between him and Son] and Richy was also good with the strikers. I repeat now the game has ended. Now our thoughts have to be for the next game against Everton. It will be difficult, it will be tough. We have to recover energy and today I tried to give a bit of rest because we conceded the game close for the result. We have to recover and prepare for the game against Everton well. Good news because Deki Kulusevski will probably be available and Lucas Moura came back to today to play for 10 minutes. We have all the players available and that’s good news for us.
Harry Kane is one of the best penalty takers in the world, have you ever seen him take a penalty like that even in training?
You know we are talking about a player that is very difficult to miss penalties. He’s a killer and I think that also today in the end he was really really tired because he ran a lot. He played for the team and I think he played in a fantastic way today. Harry scored and this is good news for us. Also Sonny two goals and now I repeat this game ended. A good win, we are leading our group and now we need to be focused on the Premier League because we have a tough game against Everton at home. Three tough games before Sporting Lisbon, home against Everton, away against Manchester United and then against Newcastle.
