Russia round-up: Dinamo close in

FC Dinamo Moskva closed the gap on leaders PFC CSKA Moskva after a win against FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast.

Tough game
CSKA were made to sweat for a point at their own stadium against FC Zenit St. Peterburg. Alexander Kerzhakov and Olexander Spivak twice gave Zenit the lead only for Denis Popov and Alexander Geinrikh to level the scores. Geinrikh made it 2-2 in the final minutes of the game by which time Andrei Arshavin had been dismissed for Zenit.

Dinamo delight
CSKA's slip up allowed Dinamo to creep closer to top spot, after a win against Saturn, who had started the weekend in second place. Ognien Koroman scored the only goal of the game, following up after Eugeni Kornyukhin had made a brilliant save to deny him from the penalty spot.

Dramatic game
Eslewhere, FC Rostov secured a 4-3 home win against SC Rotor Volgograd in a game which boasted four goals - two for each side - in the space of four minutes towards the end. Roman Adamov scored twice for Rostov, with Alexander Maslov and Mihail Osinov also on target, while Eugeni Aldonin, Denis Zubko and Valeri Esipov were on target for Rotor.

Spartak recovery
FC Spartak Moskva recovered from going a goal down to win 3-2 against FC Chernomorets Krasnodarskiy Kray. Vyacheslav Kamoltsev gave Chernomorets the lead but Roman Pavlyuchenko scored twice and Yegor Titov added a third to lead Spartak to victory. Hungarian goalkeeper Szablocs Safar put in a good performance on his debut for Spartak, but could not prevent Konstantin Gordiyuk pulling a goal back in the final minute.
 
Lokomotiv held
FC Torpedo Moskva had no joy against FC Krylya Sovetov Samara, with Andrei Tikhonov, Robertas Poskus, Leilton and Anton Bober scoring to seal a 4-2 win, while reigning champions FC Lokomotiv Moskva dropped points against FC Rubin Kazan in a 1-1 draw.

Struggling sides
Finally, FC Shinnik Yaroslavl beat FC Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz 1-0 to leave the Vladikavkaz side struggling in the relegation zone. They are now just a point clear of bottom side FC Torpedo-Metallurg Moskva who secured a 1-1 draw against FC Uralan Elista in Moscow.