Antonio Conte has praised Inter’s players for delivering under ‘big pressure’ tonight following their win against Atalanta.

The Nerazzurri took all three points at San Siro courtesy of a second-half strike from Milan Skriniar, withstanding a late Atalanta onslaught thereafter.

AC Milan had put pressure on Inter by closing the gap yesterday with victory at Hellas Verona, but Conte’s side responded in the best way possible.

“It is inevitable that when you’re playing after your opponents, knowing that they have won and closed the gap, from a psychological point of view there was a lot of pressure,” Conte remarked in an interview with Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia, following the game at San Siro.

“That will only increase from here until the end.”

The former Italian national team boss went on to sing the praises of Lautaro Martinez who returned to the starting line-up and also sang the praises of other players in the team too.

“A big applause should be given to Lautaro,” Conte said.

“Today I asked him for more sacrifice in the defensive phase and he dropped himself into the midfield and went out and applied pressure.

“This is the sort of demonstration that all the boys are totally committed and devoted to the cause.

“They know very well that in order to win everyone needs to make sacrifices and that sacrifices will be rewarded with joy in the end.

“I applaud those who are playing less, from Andrea Ranocchia to Ashley Young to Roberto Gagliardini, Andrea Pinamonti and Stefano Sensi.

“They are our strength, the real strength is those who are off the pitch.

“People like Danilo D’Ambrosio and Ranocchia are making club history, Aleksandar Kolarov has brought personality and wisdom and is giving us a great hand, he has the right words for the right time.

“These players are to be thanked because they give greater focus to those who play.”

Conte also sang the praises of Atalanta, who he now believes are cut out of the Serie A title chase after this result against his side.

“Atalanta are a team who take points from all the big teams, they are difficult to play against and if you do not prepare well for the match you put yourself at risk.

“They prepared for the match much more carefully than in our previous matches, because they knew the ways in which we could hurt them.

“These are three important points, we have taken Atalanta out of the Scudetto chase because we are now 13 points ahead of them.”

The ex-Chelsea boss also dismissed the idea that Inter already have part of the Scudetto in hand.

“Do we have some of the Scudetto in our pocket? No, if you look in my pocket I have 40 euros because I have to refuel.

“We have to continue, we still have two games before the international break which come against Torino and Sassuolo, one team stuck at the bottom of the table and one team which always causes us problems.

“We must continue not thinking about what has been, tomorrow the boys will rest because I think it is right and we will recharge the batteries.”

Conte was asked about the importance of winning such games where the Nerazzurri only had one shot on target, with that being their goal.

“We may have only had one shot but we missed sensational chances that we could have done better with.

“We had sensational chances, Romelu Lukaku had one where he could have done better during the fist half when he found himself in front of the goalkeeper.

“It was a very tactical game, those who play against us always put an extra something in.

“Atalanta changed their way of playing today but they did not have our chances, they were less aggressive due to fear of our counters.”

Conte then sang the praises of his team for their defensive display against such a great attacking outfit in Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta.

“We are the best attack and we played against the second-best attack.

“This means that we have found more balance in the defensive phase, the players recognise situations by understanding when to go up high.

“In the beginning we always went high like Atalanta do, it’s inevitable that the opponents then find the countermeasures to that.

“Last year the aggressive attitude led us to an important final, this year the step was to find the right balance.

“To win you need consistency in both phases, today we have only conceded two chances to the second best attack.

“Atalanta produced less than us. ”