MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - Last year's surprise Premier League champions Rubin Kazan opened up a four-point lead at the top of the table with an emphatic 3-0 win over second-placed Spartak Moscow in the Russian capital on Sunday.
Sergei Semak opened the scoring at the Luzhniki stadium with a well-struck shot form outside the penalty area in the 33rd minute. Six minutes later, Alejandro Dominquez earned and then converted a penalty.
Alexander Bukharov, recently called up for international duty ahead of Russia's World Cup qualifiers against Lichtenstein and Wales, sealed the win with a trademark powerful header in the 58th minute.
"I'm really disappointed with the result," Spartak's Brazilian forward Alex told sportbox.ru. "We weren't anything like ourselves and deserved to lose."
"Of course, a four-point gap isn't catastrophic, but given the quality of our rivals, it'll be very tough to make up," he added.
"I don't believe that everything is settled," Bukharov told Sovetski Sport. There are still ten games left. Everything is in our hands though, that's a fact."
CSKA Moscow slumped to a 1-0 defeat away to lowly Rostov, dropping from 3rd to 4th place. Speculation grew with the defeat that trainer Zico may soon be on his way out.
On Friday, the former Red Army side lost striker Vagner Love, who has returned to Brazilian club Palmeiras on a one-year loan deal. Last year's top scorer in the Russian Premier League said he was returning to Brazil for "family reasons."
CSKA's defeat allowed FC Moskva to leapfrog them, despite only drawing 0-0 with Tom Tomsk in West Siberia.
Vladimir Bystrov celebrated his return to hometown club Zenit St. Petersburg after a four-year stay at Spartak Moscow with a goal in a 4-0 away win over bottom team Khimki.
RESULTS
Spartak Moscow 0-3 Rubin
Rostov 1-0 CSKA Moscow
Tom Tomsk 0-0 FC Moskva
Lokomotiv Moskva 4-1 Kuban
Krilya Sovetov 3-1 Dynamo Moscow
Saturn 3-0 Terek Grozny
Khimki 0-4 Zenit St. Petersburg
Amkar-Spartak Nalchik play this evening (August 31)
TABLE (20 games unless stated)
Rubin 43
Spartak Moscow 39
FC Moskva 34
CSKA Moscow 33
Lokomotiv Moscow 32
Zenit St. Petersburg 31
Dynamo Moscow 30
Saturn 29
Krylya Sovetov 28
Rostov 26
Tom Tomsk 24
Terek 24
Amkar 18 (19 games)
Kuban 18
Spartak Nalchik 14 (19 games)
Khimki 10
