Inter lost their Coppa Italia semi-final against Juventus last week, according to Nerazzurri boss Antonio Conte.

Juve secured their progression to the final on Tuesday with a goalless draw at the Allianz Stadium, having won the first leg at San Siro 2-1.

Conte had no regrets over his team’s performance in Turin but rued that the damage had already been done seven days ago.

“We have paid for the 2-1 loss in the first leg,” Conte remarked in an interview with Inter’s official club broadcaster following the full-time whistle.

“We weren’t very lucky and we are very sorry for the failure to qualify.

“At the same time, in any case, we need to think about it.

“When you play important games like this, silly mistakes are costly.

“We had a good match and played with determination and desire.

“It is clear that we failed to score, we were not able to capitalise on our efforts.

“We need to learn and improve from mistakes, without ever stopping.”

Conte was then asked about how things have changed since Inter’s last visit to the Allianz Stadium, when Juve won comfortably 2-0, which came close to a year ago just before the Serie A season was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The feelings that I got from the three matches against the Bianconeri this season are very different from those before,” he argued.

“Everything is the result of a year and a half’s work, in which time many things have improved.

“Little by little we are getting closer to a team that, let’s not forget, has dominated in Italy for nine years.

“Others know that we are up there, we proved it again tonight, this counts.”

In conclusion the former Italian national team coach was quizzed on Inter’s upcoming Serie A matches with Lazio and current league leaders and city rivals AC Milan.

“Now the matches with Lazio and AC Milan await us, they are two opponents on the same level.

“Our focus is on the league now.

“We started this tough cycle of games with the home game against Juventus and now we will face Lazio and AC Milan but all matches are demanding, not only these ones.

“We need to recover now, the physical and mental effort has been important in the last 10 days.”

Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed both goals for Andrea Pirlo’s side at San Siro last week, capitalising on a foul from Ashley Young which gave away a penalty and then a mix-up between Samir Handanovic and Alessandro Bastoni.

Lautaro Martinez’s early opener in Milan ultimately proved to be in vain.