MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Zenit St. Petersburg cut short coach Dick Advocaat's final season at the club following a 2-0 defeat at home that left the 2007 Russian champions in eighth place, 10 points off leaders Rubin.
The Dutchman's time as trainer - which was due to end in November when he goes to coach the Belgian national side - was the most successful in Zenit's history, with the club's first Russian Premier League title followed in 2008 by the UEFA Cup.
Since that victory, however, the team has struggled, squeaking into this season's Europa League with a victory on the final weekend of last season and facing a similar battle again this season.
Advocaat had been under increasing pressure in recent weeks as the gap to defending champions Rubin at the top of the table grew, and he recently expressed dissatisfaction with the sporting director's transfer dealings.
Since the start of the year, the coach has seen three of his best players leave - Russia's star forward and captain Andrei Arshavin, Zenit's Ukrainian former captain Anatoly Tymoshchuk, and Russia striker Pavel Pogrebnyak - and he criticized Igor Korneyev's subsequent signings of Belarusian striker Sergei Kornilenko and Torino midfielder Alessandro Rosina.
The club said in a statement that "unfortunately, after Advocaat agreed to coach the Belgian national team, Zenit's results noticeably deteriorated."
Zenit have two draws and two defeats in their last four games, with only the 0-0 at home to Rubin coming against a top-six side.
The statement noted that Zenit's fans and management were not satisfied with the team's league position, adding that in order to compete in this year's Europa League and fight for a place in next season's Champions League, the club and Advocaat had agreed to part company.
Rubin kept their title defense on track Saturday with a convincing 3-1 win away to FC Moskva. The season's surprise team could have gone top with a victory, and after going 2-0 down to goals from Turkish international Gokdeniz Karadeniz and Alexander Bukharov struck back through Alexander Marenich and briefly looked to have the champions on the ropes before Alejandro Dominguez sealed the win with a penalty in the 84th minute.
With Zenit off the pace and FC Moskva perhaps lacking the experience and resources to sustain a title challenge, Rubin's rivals look to be the Moscow sides CSKA and Spartak.
Perennial 1990s champions Spartak continued their good form under former player Valery Karpin, racing to a 2-0 lead inside 11 minutes at Spartak Nalchik before being pegged back to 2-2 early in the second half. Vladimir Bystrov scored the winner for the Muscovites with a quarter of an hour remaining and league top-scorer Welliton sealed the 4-2 victory - and his hat trick - with a penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
That keeps Spartak a point behind Rubin but Karpin will be hopeful that once the Kazan side begins its first Champions League campaign in September the distraction will open the door for Spartak, who missed out on Europe last season, to overhaul the leaders.
CSKA moved up to third on Sunday, capitalizing on FC Moskva's defeat with a last-minute goal from substitute Tomas Necid to beat Amkar Perm 1-0 at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium.
At the bottom of the table, Moscow Region side Khimki again failed to take advantage of a defeat for Spartak Nalchik, losing 2-0 away to Rostov. Meanwhile Khimki's tenants Dynamo Moscow continued to misfire and are now the lowest-scoring side in the top half, a 1-0 defeat giving Terek their first win away from Grozny and compounding a bad week for the Muscovites, who were dumped out of the Champions League by Celtic in midweek.
Results
FC Moskva 1-3 Rubin
Spartak Nalchik 2-4 Spartak Moscow
Kuban 0-2 Saturn
Dynamo Moscow 0-1 Terek
Krylya Sovetov 1-3 Lokomotiv Moscow
Zenit St. Petersburg 0-2 Tom Tomsk
CSKA Moscow 1-0 Amkar
Rostov 2-0 Khimki
Table (17 matches)
Rubin 34
Spartak Moscow 33
CSKA Moscow 30
FC Moskva 30
Dynamo Moscow 27
Lokomotiv Moscow 25
Terek 24
Zenit St. Petersburg 24
Saturn 23
Rostov 22
Krylya Sovetov 21
Tom Tomsk 20
Amkar 18
Kuban 15
Spartak Nalchik 11
Khimki 10
