Milan - Europe's top coaches have praised Juventus Turin for their brilliant start to the season and named them top rivals of championsInter Milan for the Serie A title. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Tuesday that the favourable remarks came during a meeting of national team coaches organized by the continental body UEFA in Vienna.
Juve and Inter have seven points each from three games at the top the Serie A standings.
Russia's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink was quoted as saying that coach Claudio Ranieri "has the experience and personality to make Juve big again. I remember him in Spain when he coached a not-so-easy club like Valencia."
He also put the black-whites among the favourites to advance into the knockout stages of Champions League from a group including Real Madrid and UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg, whom Juve beat 1-0 at home last week.
Vicente Del Bosque, who took the Spain helm after the nation's Euro 2008 triumph, said that Juve's one-season stint in the Serie B in 2006/2007 was now forgotten.
They paid for it (involvement in a wide match-fixing scandal) and are back among the big boys. The merit goes to the great moral behaviour of their best players. (Gianluigi) Buffon, (Pavel) Nedved, (Alexxandro) Del Piero, (Mauro) Camoranesi stayed on in the hard moments."
Del Bosque, however, saw no chances for Juve's final success. "Inter are still the strongest," he said.
Further encouragement came from Fatih Terim, currently on Turkey's bench after Serie A stints at Fiorentina and AC Milan.
"Juve are Juve. They want to win, as always. And not having changed coach (since returning to the Serie A in 2007) was a big help."
The Turin side have improved their offensive power through the arrival from Palermo of Brazilian Amauri and have a strong defence that has conceded a single goal in three games.
Trouble during the season could come from injuries and wear of their fairly aged players. The goalkeeper Buffon, captain Del Piero, Camoranesi, Jonathan Zebina and Cristiano Zanetti, all being over-30, have appeared on the team's injured list so far.
Worst news this week came from French veteran striker David Trezeguet, last season's second league best scorer behind Del Piero, who is to undergo knee surgery and will be sidelined at least until January.
