Coaches convinced about Roma title chances

AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti and his Juventus counterpart Ciro Ferrara insisted on Saturday that the capital-based club can challenge for the Serie A title.

All the talk at the beginning of the season has been about the big three teams: AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juve.

But before last season, Roma had finished runners-up three years in a row and both Spalletti and Ferrara believe they can go close once again.

“There are many competitive squads in this championship. Are Juve stronger than us? I think we both have strong squads, what makes the difference is how you work over the whole season,” said Spalletti.

That’s a view shared by Ferrara despite Roma’s opening day 3-2 defeat at Genoa.

“Roma can challenge right to the end for first place. This will be a very difficult match,” he said.

“Our opponents are more advanced than us because they have played four more official matches, but I’m sure they would have preferred to avoid playing Juve this early.

“A win against the red-and-yellows would give us a valuable boost.”

Juve won 4-1 in the corresponding fixture last season but that came during a difficult campaign for Roma.

This time around, though, Roma have already shown their firepower in a midweek 7-1 victory against Kosice in the Europa League.

And this is only Ferrara’s fourth league match in charge of Juve, and indeed as a Serie A coach.

But Spalletti doesn’t believe that inexperience will count on the day.

“He has the quality to do well. On a human level both he and (fellow rookie coach) Leonardo (of Milan) have shown great things.

“I think his experience of playing at the top level will help him in his coaching career.”

Ferrara may be a novice coach but as a player he won the Champions League and five titles with Juve while he was also a scudetto winner twice with Napoli alongside Diego Maradona.