On Sunday evening, the Russian Premier League saw arguably the most amazing game in its 20-year history. Having missed a penalty and endured a break for floodlight failure, Spartak Moscow came back from two goals down to win 4-2 over ten-man Terek.
Terek 2-4 Spartak Moscow
Terek took control of the pulsating match from the very beginning, and the first-half opener by Shamil Asildarov was a fair proof of their advantage.
A few minutes before the break Jose Mauricio netted a rebounded penalty to make it 2-0.
Just before half-time, Spartak was given a chance to return back into the game, but Artyom Dzyuba missed a penalty, so 2-0 it stayed.
Then, three minutes after the interval, Terek’s Soslan Dzhanaev saw red after a desperate foul against the guests’ forward Welliton, and Dmitry Kombarov pulled a goal back from the penalty spot.
Spartak increased pressure and Ari made it 2-2 a quarter of an hour from time.
But then the lights went out at the new stadium, and it took 50 minutes to get them partially re-lit.
When the game resumed, Dzyuba and Welliton netted a goal each, deep into injury time, to give Spartak the 4-2 win.
Spartak’s new signing Demy De Zueew made his debut in this game, and he said he would never forget it.
Spartak Nalchik 0-1 Rubin
Twice-former champions Rubin kept up the pressure on the top four with a controversial 1-0 win at second-bottom Spartak Nalchik.
Nalchik defender Leandro da Silva saw his feeble first-half penalty denied by Sergey Ryzhikov.
But Igor Lebedenko saved his blushes with a 72nd-minute strike despite a wave of protests from the home side, who insisted the striker handled the ball in the build-up.
Still, Rubin took victory to stay fifth.
Lokomotiv Moscow 0-0 Krylya Sovetov
Lokomotiv Moscow’s new manager Jose Caceiro remains undefeated since taking charge. Although his side played out a goal-less draw against bottom side Krylia Sovetov.
That is three wins and a draw for the Portuguese boss since arriving in Russia.
Amkar 0-2 FC Krasnodar
New boys Krasnodar came out easy 2-0 winners at lowly Amkar to end their four-match winless run, and stay ninth.
Marcio Abreu opened 13 minutes in, and early in the second half Nikola Drincic blasted in a long-range cracker, from a set-piece to condemn his former side Amkar to their third defeat in four games.
CSKA still lead the way but are now just two points ahead of Zenit. Dynamo Moscow are third, while Anzhi and Rubin with the same number of points are fourth and fifth respectively. Spartak Moscow are sixth, another two points behind.
At the other end, Krlyia Sovetov and Spartak Nalchik are bottom.