CSKA Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky has praised his team’s spirit after they grabbed a last-minute equalizer away against Rubin on Matchday 20 of the Russian Premier League.
Rubin Kazan 1-1 CSKA Moscow
The Army Men remain the league leaders, but have only claimed two points from their last three games.
CSKA fell behind to Rubin just before half time as the ref gave a penalty for handball and Bibras Natkho scored, 1-0.
History repeated itself in the second half. Only this time, the visitors got a chance to level matters from the spot after CSKA striker Vagner Love pushed in the six-yard and Rubin’s defender Vitaly Kaleshin red carded.
Sergey Ignashevich’s blast went over the crossbar, but the Muscovites never gave up their attempts to equalize and were awarded with a goal on the final seconds of stoppage time, through substitute Alan Dzagoev.
CSKA are now three points above second placed Zenit St. Petersburg, who play their game against Amkar on Sunday.
Dynamo Moscow 6-2 Terek Grozny
Goals were not in short supply when Dynamo Moscow and Terek Grozny met up at Arena Khimki.
The visitors from Chechnya grabbed the lead early on, with rookie Ewerthon creeping in at the back post.
But that was as good as it would get for Terek on the day. Dynamo first equalizing, through Andrey Voronin after half an hour and then six minutes later they took the lead thanks to Kevin Kuranyi.
Two more goals on the either side of the break have made Terek’s job even harder.
The one-sided clash ended up at 6-2, and Dynamo move to within a point of second-seated Zenit.
FC Tom 0-2 Spartak Nalchik
Spartak Nalchik, meanwhile, have climbed off bottom following a 2-0 win away in Tomsk.
The visitors took the lead 15 minutes from time, with Aleksandr Shchanitsyn finding the net beautifully on the turn.
Contender for miss of the season would swiftly follow as Arsen Goshokov fired over when it looked much easier to score.
But the striker would make amends right at the death, hitting home with the Tomsk side’s defense once again all at sea, 2-0.
Rostov 1-2 Kuban Krasnodar
Kuban goes to sixth place after beating Rostov 2-1 on the road.
Brazilian defender Zelao scored the first for Kuban, but Hector Bracamonte rose well for the home team’s equalizer.
But Marco Ne needed only six minutes to put Kuban in front again and settle the final score.