Russia round-up: Derby joy for Spartak

FC Spartak Moscow closed the gap on the leaders with a hard-fought derby win over FC Torpedo Moscow.

Deflected winner
Spartak beat Torpedo 2-1 thanks to a deflected 60th-minute strike from Eduard Tsiykhmeistrukin. The win leaves Spartak in third place on 14 points, two points behind CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv who have a game in hand. Torpedo are fifth.

Duo injured
A heated game left two Russian internationals injured and doubtful for the upcoming friendly against France. Egor Titov gave Spartak the lead after 18 minutes from a Tsiykhmeistruk cross but by that time Spartak's Russian international defender Yuri Kovtun had been taken off with an injury. The national side's new golden boy, striker Dmitry Sychev, also picked up an injury.
 
Excellent sportsmanship
Torpedo drew level two minutes into the second half through Igor Semshov who beat Dmitry Goncharov in a one-on-one situation. Several minutes later, Semshov was the centre of attention again for an excellent piece of sportsmanship. Igor Mitreski was on the ground injured as a dangerous Torpedo attack looked almost certain to lead to a goal, but Semshov opted to kick the ball out of play so his opponent could receive treatment. 
 
Mixed reaction
The action earned mixed reaction from the coaches. Warm comments came from Russia and Spartak coach Oleg Romantsev, who said: "I am stunned in a positive way. This is real fair play." However, Torpedo coach Viktor Shevchenko was not so positive, launching a scathing attack on his own player. "It looks like this player does not want to win," Shevchenko said .
 
Tsiykhmeistruk settles it
Ukrainian midfield player Tsiykhmeistruk won the three points for Spartak when his shot took a wild deflection and ended up in Valery Vorobiev's goal on the hour.