I don’t regret signing for Chelsea – Conte

Antonio Conte has insisted he does not regret agreeing a deal with Chelsea with Euro 2016.

The Italy coach led his side to the quarter-finals on Monday, after an excellent 2-0 win over defending champions, Spain.

Conte will join Chelsea once the Azzurris’ European Championship is over, but he has admitted he would like to return one day in future.

“I’ve made a choice,” Conte said after the game.

“I will have a significant experience abroad now. But clearly Italy has a place in my heart from every perspective and I hope to be Italy coach again in the future because there is no experience like that in the world.”

The former Juventus boss credited their victory over Spain to hard work, admitting he does not have world class players to choose from.

“Right from the outset since I took over I have said that the only route forward to achieve a semblance of success is to try and be a like a club team,” Conte said.

“We can’t simply be a group of players. There is no point in hiding it, this is not the rosiest period for Italy in terms of talent.

“Given the fact we can’t fall back on a selection of good players we have to be a collective. I have battled for two years for people to understand this and we are a team.

“We have been working very intensively for a month now, tactically and physically, in a bid to surprise people and we have already succeeded on that.”

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