MOSCOW (AP) - FC Krasnodar boosted its bid to qualify for the Champions League for the first time with a 2-1 home win over FC Rostov on Sunday.
That result returns Krasnodar to the second of Russia’s two Champions League spots and piles the pressure on third-placed CSKA Moscow, which faces a tricky test against Rubin Kazan on Monday. The season’s final round of matches will be played on Saturday.
On-loan midfielder Roman Shirokov’s 10th-minute strike gave Krasnodar the lead and Wanderson doubled the advantage on 33 minutes.
Rostov gained a foothold when Vitaly Dyakov scored with 15 minutes of the game remaining, but Krasnodar saw out the win.
Krasnodar is three points ahead of CSKA, which has Monday’s game in hand. If the two finish level on points, CSKA will take the Champions League spot due to a higher number of wins.
On Saturday, newly crowned champion Zenit St. Petersburg slumped to a surprise defeat, going down 1-0 away to 11th-placed Amkar Perm on a goal from Alexander Kolomeitsev.
The loss ended a 13-game winning streak in the league for Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit, dating back to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mordovia Saransk in November.
In another unexpected result, FC Ufa moved out of the relegation places with a 2-1 win over Spartak Moscow.
Bottom-placed club Arsenal Tula bolstered its slim hopes of surviving its first top-flight season Sunday, drawing on 2-2 against Dynamo Moscow. To remain in the Premier League, Arsenal’s players must beat Kuban Krasnodar on the last day of the season and hope other results go their way.
The other team in the automatic relegation zone, Torpedo Moscow, won 3-1 against Ural Yekaterinburg on Saturday in a match played in an empty stadium due to earlier racist behavior by Torpedo fans. On Sunday, Mordovia beat Terek Grozny 1-0.
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