Lokomotiv Moscow have failed to strengthen their lead in the Premier League, drawing against Spartak Moscow. Lokomotiv has retained its first place but rivals Zenit St Petersburg are now breathing down their back, with just one point below.

 

Spartak’s acting coach Dmitry Gunko has improved his image with football experts, orchestrating a more orderly performance by a team that lost in the last three matches. Valery Karpin was fired after two losses in matches against Terek Grozny in the Premier League and Tosno Leningrad Region, a club from the second division, in the Russian Cup. The team’s owner Leonid Fedun complained the title was floating away despite the fact that Karpin had all he had wanted. After Karpin’s departure, Spartak Moscow suffered a crushing defeat against Krasnodar.

 

Amkar’s coach was tipped as the most likely coach for the Moscow side after Dzhevan Cheloyants, a member of Spartak’s board of directors, said the team’s former goalkeeper was the main candidate for the post. Cherchesov, 50, is USSR and Russian champion, and also won the title in Austria for Tirol. He already served as Spartak’s manager in 2007 but his first term was not impressive. His candidacy was later rejected by Leonid Fedun due to unknown reasons.

 

Sixth-place Krasnodar outperformed Kuban 3-1 in an impressive derby, with a double by Roman Shirokov, on loan from Zenit St Petersburg. Shirokov also made an excellent assist to Ari, a former Spartak forward, who left the Moscow team over a pay dispute. Shirokov was relegated from Zenit after falling out with head coach Luciano Spalletti.

 

Dynamo Moscow collected an easy 3-1 win in Tom, with two of the goals scored by players signed from Anzhi Makhachkala. Earlier, Russia-IC reported that Dynamo Moscow was beefed up by six Anzhi players who moved to Moscow after the Makhachkala club made a sudden U-turn on its ambitious strategy. Igor Denisov, Yury Zhirkov, and Alexander Kokorin, with a total reported worth of 45 million euro, had to change their career plans after Anzhi owner Suleiman Kerimov decided to cut his investment into the club and sell off the stars, focusing on local players. Later Dynamo Moscow also bought Vladimir Gabulov, Christopher Samba and Alexey Ionov, reportedly for 18 million euro.

Sources: http://www.sovsport.ru