AC Milan vs Tottenham: Antonio Conte says some of his players ...

Antonio Conte says some of his Tottenham players "collapse" when they feel under too much pressure.

Tottenham take on AC Milan in the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday after a heavy 4-1 defeat to Leicester on Saturday. Despite a 1-0 win over Manchester City on February 5, Spurs have lost three of their last five Premier League games.

Conte says he wants greater "stability" within his squad in order to win silverware with the north London club, who are without a trophy since lifting the League Cup title in 2008.

"If you want to win or achieve some targets and have a good position in the Champions League or in England in the Premier League you have to be stable," the Italian, who returned to the sideline on Saturday after recovering from gallbladder surgery, said.

"And this stability is lacking this year. I always talk about it with my players. It is very difficult to keep concentration, it is very difficult to stay focused all of the time.

"It is not an easy task being so focused. We are working on that, playing under pressure all of the time is good for some players and bad for others.

"Sometimes players feel motivated, other times they feel so much under pressure that they can't perform.

"Maybe for a period they have a good performance and then they collapse all of a sudden if they feel too much pressure. We are working on this, we want to make our players more resilient."

Conte, who has previously won Serie A titles with Inter Milan in 2020 and Juventus in 2012, 2013 and 2014, believes players who grew up in Italy are better used to coping in high pressure situations than in England.

"I think that the pressure is different between Italy and England," he said.

"In Italy you speak about football from Monday and you finish on Sunday. You speak only football and then you have a lot of TV that speaks football and putting a lot of pressure.

"You are born in this way and you grow in this way, with this pressure, and you are used to living with this type of situation.

"In England I think that there is an atmosphere that brings to enjoy football without a lot of pressure, because football is a sport and in Italy sometimes football is not only a sport, it is a war between the teams and the fans."

Tottenham, who currently sit in fifth in the Premier League table, have struggled with injuries this season.

Tottenham take on Milan with captain Hugo Lloris out for two months, Yves Bissouma who is recovering from ankle surgery and and Rodrigo Bentancur out for the rest of the season with an ACL injury.

Conte says "luck has abandoned" his team with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg set to miss the Champions League tie due to suspension.

"There are also external factors like injuries for very important players for us," he said. "And those injuries influence the team, influence the growing evolution of the league.

"You can be prepared for everything, you can be a tactical man, good strategies, good line-ups, you can have high-quality players but then if those high-quality players get injured then you need to change things.

"Every manager wishes to have the best players available. Luck has abandoned us."

AC Milan ended their seven game winless run in all competitions with a 1-0 win over Torino in Serie A on Friday.

Seven-time European champions Milan have not got beyond the round of 16 stage of the Champions League since 2012, but manager Stefano Pioli is confident his side can produce a victory over Tottenham.

"We believe we're equal to Tottenham," he said.

"Winning the Champions League is a dream but it's useless to think about it now. A week ago, they beat Manchester City, but we don't come in better or worse than them. It will be a big game that we will have to play well."