Antonio Conte fears he will be sacked by Tottenham after leaving the Champions League

Antonio Conte fears he will be sacked before the end of the season after Tottenham Hotspur fell out of the Champions League.

“I’m under contract with Tottenham Hotspur, then we’ll decide with the club at the end of the season,” Spurs boss Conte told the Italian premier after a goalless draw against Milan ended their trophy hopes this season .

“My contract expires in June, we’ll see – maybe they’ll fire me before the end of the season, who knows, maybe they’ll be disappointed.”

Conte bemoaned Tottenham’s lack of sharpness as they slipped feebly out of the Champions League.

The Spurs could only score twice on goal as they were held at home by Milan and beaten 1–0 on aggregate by the Italian champions.

“That’s the third game in a row we couldn’t score,” said Conte, whose team finished the game down to 10 men with Cristian Romero collecting his second yellow card in the 78th minute.

“The game was balanced. I think we can do much better offensively. I’m talking about the whole team, not just those playing in the front half. We can do much better.

“I can’t say anything negative about the efforts of the players. They gave everything from the beginning to the end. We finished the game with 10 men. But if I have to see a positive situation, it is that we have taken a step forward.

“We played in the Europa Conference League last year and didn’t get out of the group stage. Now we have taken a step forward, but it is not enough and if we want to be competitive, we have to fight.’

Conte vowed to push for the best possible finish in the Premier League. “We have to keep working,” he told BT Sport. “We have one more game to recover from. We have to try to get to the best possible position at the end of the season.’

Tottenham legend Glenn Hoddle criticized Conte’s team. “The squad is not good enough,” Hoddle told BT Sports. “Fourth pace is better than they should. There was no energy. There was no creativity. Very disappointing. Midfield is a problem for me. Too often they go backwards for nothing.’

The Spurs were lukewarm when they left the competition on Tuesday at the hands of AC Milan

Cristian Romero was sent off in the second half for two yellow card offenses in North London

Peter Crouch, who scored the winning goal for Spurs when the teams last met, said: ‘What’s the point of finishing in the top four if you’re going to perform like that in the Champions League? You go for the top four, but for what? They have not performed in any match I have seen here in the Champions League.’

Spurs have failed to win in any of their last five Champions League knockout matches, a run that stretches back to Ajax’s 2019 semi-final win.

Milan celebrated reaching the last eight and boss Stefano Pioli said: “We deserved to go on. We outperformed our opponents in both games. We never gave up, always tried to play our game, moving forward.’

Olivier Giroud, former Arsenal and Chelsea striker of Milan, added: “It’s a great result. We made it to the last 16 and we deserved this result, even though we could have scored more. We showed quality, spirit, and we could have won tonight.’