Kuban Krasnodar shock Spartak, Grozny win
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Russia's most successful club Spartak Moscow suffered a shock defeat on Saturday falling 3-0 at struggling Kuban Krasnodar. The result left Spartak fourth, six points adrift of leaders CSKA Moscow, who face Mordovia Saransk on Sunday.
Another Moscow club Lokomotiv are second, five points behind the leaders, while reigning champions Zenit St. Petersburg sit third equal on points with Spartak. Kuban, who axed coach Dmitry Khokhlov earlier this week, got off to a lively start through midfielder Arsen Khubulov, who hammered home a rebound after a free-kick by Vladislav Kulik after nine minutes.
Paraguayan defender Lorenzo Melgarejo added another on 36 minutess from a pinpoint pass off Kulik and lobbed over Spartak goalkeeper Artem Rebrov from the edge of the box. Vladislav Ignatiev netted Kuban's third with three minutes to go to help his side chalk up their season's first win and move off the bottom of the table.
Earlier, Terek Grozny beat visiting Ufa 4-1 to go ninth, with Brazilian midfielder Mauricio scoring twice. Mauricio got the first after ten minutes from the penalty spot, and the second nine minutes before the break. Nigerian Sylvester Igboun pulled one back in the 69th minute with a penalty but Zaur Sadaev and Maciej Rybus both came off the bench to score for Terek.