Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte says Liverpool and Chelsea have shown how tough it is to win trophies in England.
Conte is hoping to lead Spurs into the FA Cup quarter-finals with a win over Middlesbrough on Tuesday.
"To win trophies in England is very difficult," Conte said at his pre-match press conference.
"At the moment it's easier to win in Europe than England. When you start to play the quarter-final, semi-final, final, you have to fight against a top, top team that probably could play the final of the Champions League. It's important to continue to go through in this trophy.
"This happened in the Carabao [Cup], don't underestimate the semi-final Tottenham reached. Because the final was Chelsea v Liverpool, so to reach the semi-final in this moment was a good result for Tottenham.
"For sure this has to be a boost to push us to improve the level, to be competitive, to try to meet a trophy as soon as possible. Because if I speak about the future, you don't understand the time that we need. For sure it'll be important to improve the level and fight to win a trophy. But I repeat, to win a trophy now is very difficult.
"Also I want to celebrate the game between Chelsea and Liverpool yesterday, it was a great, exciting game to watch. This also underlines how difficult it is to win trophies in this country. It was amazing for me and all the people in other countries to watch this game.
"Great congratulations for me to Chelsea and Liverpool, the players, the coach, for the fans, for the total environment it was a fantastic sport for football. I think that England has to be proud about this."
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