Eventually the Saint Petersburg team, led by captain Anatoly Timoschuk, upped their game. Russian international Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a super goal, firing an unstoppable free-kick from thirty meters, leveling it 1-1. Scoring against Spartak has always been a matter of principle for the footballer, who started his career playing for the red-and-whites.

Both teams were on the attack in the second half, with Spartak looking nearer to grabbing the win, but none of their efforts affected the score.

The game itself, however, was overshadowed by the action in the stands. Over 10,000 Zenit fans came to the capital to support their heroes, and some of them managed to break through the police cordons and attack the local supporters with seats they had torn from the stands.

The atmosphere at the stadium was tense until the final whistle, ending the one-all standoff.

659 people were detained after the match, 511 of them are Zenit supporters.

Saturn Moscow Region 0-3 CSKA Moscow

CSKA Moscow set out their stall for the year with a victory away to Saturn.

The host went a man down on 32 minutes after Angbva brought down Yury Zhyrkov and was awarded with the second yellow card, but they fiercely defended and kept the 0-0 score till the 70th minute.

But then Russia’s best young player of 2008, 18-year-old Alain Dzhagoev, flipped the ball over keeper Antonin Kinski, giving Army Men the lead, 1-0.

And Sergey Ignashevich scored two more goals, finding himself in the right place at the right time after a free kick on 82 and a corner on 87 minutes.

FC Tom Nomsk 0-1 Krylia Sovietov Samara

Krylia Sovietov also ensured they would begin the new season by bagging the maximum points.

The men from Samara created chance after chance against FC Tom but just couldn’t find the necessary finishing touch until Evgeny Savin slammed home after Timofey Kalachev's pull-back.

The game was played at a neutral field in the Southern Russian city of Pyategorsk, because of the low (over minus 20 Celsius) temperatures in Tomsk.

Terek Grozny 0-0 Spartak Nalchik

A strike from Cleber on the third minute of stoppage time gave a team from the Chechen capital a win at the all-Caucasian derby.

The game turned out to be a really tough encounter, with seven referees showing seven yellow cards to the players.