Spurs barely created anything at the San Siro and after Tuesday’s defeat in the first leg of the last-16 match-up and the weekend’s heavy loss to Leicester, Conte said it was his job to give his players more confidence.
“I think some players need some more belief, especially in attack. We need to rediscover that belief we have lost in taking on your man, but there was great effort and desire,” he told reporters.
“My job is to give players belief in themselves … we definitely need to try and improve.”
Conte has had to deal with serious injuries to Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma, which led to him having to pick youngsters Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar in midfield.
The Italian said the pair’s performances gave him hope as he will have to do without Bentancur for the rest of the season while Bissouma needs an operation on a stress fracture to his ankle.
“To play this way in the Champions League and in San Siro in this atmosphere… they played a really good game, I’m really happy,” added Conte.
“This type of performance makes me more relaxed for the future because you consider that we could finish the season with three midfielders.
“I know I can count on these two players 100 per cent.”
Brahim Diaz bundled in the only goal of the game in the seventh minute at a packed San Siro to give Milan the advantage before next month’s second leg in London.
The Spaniard’s strike was the first and one of very few real chances of a scrappy game which highlighted the far from sparkling form of both teams heading into match.
“I’s really happy for the team, because we did great work all week,” Diaz told Mediaset.
“We’ve been through some difficult situations but now we need to look forward … now we need to think about Serie A and then we can think about the game in London.”
Spurs failed to supply their record scorer Harry Kane with any service and Milan had great chances in quick succession late in the second half to extend their aggregate lead but these were fluffed by Charles De Ketelaere and Malick Thiaw.
Despite the victory, Milan coach Stefano Pioli was left to ponder what might have been. The seven-time European champions will now have to defend a single-goal lead in London next month which gives them a chance of reaching the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2012.
“Winning 2-0 would have been a better result, because we’ll have an equally difficult match in London if not more so, but I can only be satisfied about the team’s performance,” said Pioli, whose team came into their first knockout in the competition since 2014 with their season in the balance after a horrible run of results in the past month which left their Serie A title defence in tatters.
“It’s obviously good, but in football it’s the next match that counts. We can take a lot of positives from this match but Saturday (at Monza) we need to get back out there and win again.”
Diaz had an already loud San Siro roaring with joy when he pounced on Theo Hernandez’s saved shot, first forcing a superb stop from Fraser Forster before bundling home the opener.
The closest Spurs came in a stodgy first half was when Kane clipped the bar on the rebound from Son Heung-min’s saved shot, but it was futile as the Korean was offside in the build-up.
There was very little goalmouth action from that point on until De Ketelaere came on in the 77th minute, the Belgian attacker nearly doubling the hosts’ lead almost straight after coming on.
De Ketelaere met Oliver Giroud’s perfect knockdown with a header which he could not direct on target from close range.
And seconds later Thiaw had his head in his hands after missing an even better chance to secure the win, somehow heading Rafael Leao’s inch-perfect cross wide with the goal at his mercy.
However, Spurs could not break through a backline well-marshalled by Simon Kjaer which helped inflict a second career defeat by Milan for coach Conte.