| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Current leaders Rubin shared the spoils in Vladivostok with Luch-Energiya, the sides drawing 1-1. Rubin coach Kurban Berdiyev was looking to break a run of 5 successive 0-0 draws, and fielded three forwards in Ukraine star Sergey Rebrov, Serbian veteran Savo Milosevic and Turkish international Gokdeniz Karadeniz. It was the home side, however, who opened the scoring mid-way through the first half, when a Gvazava cross found the head of Alves, who scored his first Premier League goal. But Gokdeniz came to Kazan's rescue with just 4 minutes to go, scoring with a low shot from inside the penalty area.
Chasing sides Dinamo and Amkar both failed to take advantage of the leaders' slip. Dinamo drew 1-1 away to Khimki, with Russia international Igor Semshov scoring for the visitors and Ukrainian Serhiy Pilipchuk replying for the home side. Amkar drew 0-0 at home to Spartak Nalchik in a match rather short on chances.
CSKA drew 0-0 at home to Krylya Sovetov, leaving them 8th in the standings, 8 points behind leaders Rubin. Much was expected of the star strikers on either side, Vagner Love and Jan Koller, but in the end defence prevailed. This was the Army club's fifth stalemate of the season, and they haven't scored a goal in the league for 381 minutes. There was happier news for CSKA and Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, however, who celebrated his 100th clean sheet in professional football.
Spartak Moscow were the principle beneficiaries of this weekend's set of results. Their 1-0 win away to Tom was earned thanks to an early goal by defender Malik Fathi, who headed in a Roman Shishkin free kick. The win sent Spartak, still suffering from internal turmoil over the transfer-listing of captain Egor Titov and playmaker Maksim Kalinichenko, up to fourth place, only 3 points behind Rubin.
Zenit also capitalised on the leading sides' failure to win. They came back from an early Aleksey Rebko goal to defeat FC Moskva 2-1, with an own goal from Kuzmin and a Fatih Tekke strike. The Turkish international striker, returning from suspension having been sent off against Dinamo last weekend, put in a star performance, sending Zenit up to 7th in the table with a game in hand.
In the weekend's other match Terek defeated Saturn 1-0 in Grozny with a goal from Iliev. The Ramenskoe club were missing goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who admitted after the game that he was rested because of the fear of aggravating a knee injury playing on the artificial turf at Grozny's Sultan Bilimkhanov Stadium.
James Appell
