Antonio’s verdict on Forest: “A good win - it’s not easy here”

Antonio Conte spoke about contrasting halves as we fought our way to a hard-earned 2-0 win at Forest in the Premier League on Sunday.

Harry Kane scored a goal in each half, assisted by Dejan Kulsevski and Richarlison, as we got to grips with the home side in the second half after a tough opening period where Forest’s high press and sheer energy put us under pressure.

Harry struck early from Deki’s clever reverse pass on four minutes and wrapped up the win by nodding home Richarlison’s brilliant cross 10 minutes from time. That took him past the 200 league goals milestone and up to 187 goals in the Premier League, now joint-third with Andrew Cole on the all-time list. He also moved two goals nearer to Jimmy Greaves’ all-time Spurs record of 266, Harry now on 252 goals for the Club.

All that, and he missed a penalty! Dean Henderson saved well to his right - Harry’s first penalty miss since a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Anfield all the way back in February, 2018!

Speaking to SPURSPLAY pitchside, Antonio said: “It was a good win, Forest have started the season well, they won here against West Ham, drew at Everton and we knew very well that to play in this stadium, there is a lot of noise. At the same time, our fans were really important to contrast this noise.

“To get three points was really good but we know very well that we have to continue to work and to continue to improve.”

Eric Dier suggested the players were slightly disappointed with their overall performance, and Antonio added: “The performance in the first half, we suffered, yes, we suffered, but we suffered because we were a bit under pressure and a bit scared to play the ball. I didn’t see a lot of passes between the midfielders, which is what we tried in training this week.

“In the second half, we did much better. In the second half, we dominated the game, scored the second goal, could have scored another with Harry, but I don’t think he missed the penalty, the goalkeeper made a fantastic save. At the end, it’s okay.

“It’s not easy here, we know very well. Now, we have another game on Wednesday against West Ham, then Saturday, so every player has to rest, to recover, do that well and be ready, because that will be another ‘sporting war’ against West Ham.”