Reigning champions Rubin Kazan holds on to first place in the Russian Premier League table after a 3-1 win over FC Moscow. Spartak Moscow remains one point behind Kazan, their fellow title rivals.

FC Moscow 1-3 Rubin Kazan

Rubin Kazan came into week 17 leading the Russian Premier League table by one point over Spartak Moscow and their opponents FC Moscow.

A victory for FC Moscow would have seen them leapfrog over the reigning champions. But such a reversal of fortunes was not in the cards, with right midfielder Christian Naboa immediately going on the attack.

Midway through the first half, it was Rubin that opened the scoring with Gokdeniz Karadeniz slotting the ball past Zhevnov. The play demonstrated poor defense by the home team as the Turkish international scored his fourth goal of the season.

The Muscovites struggled to create any attacking opportunities, and the visiting Kazan team took a 1-0 lead at the half-time break.

This performance may have been slightly unsettling for national manager Guus Hiddink, who was in attendance at the Eduard Streltsov Stadium in the Russian capital.

Rubin quickly doubled their lead just four minutes after the interval when FC Moscow failed to deal with a set play and Alexander Bukharov was on hand to score. The Russian striker was completely unmarked and made an easy head shot past a stranded Zhevnov for his seventh goal of the campaign.

Moscow managed to get themselves back into the game when 20-year-old substitute Aleksandr Marenich fired the ball past Ryzhinkov to give his side a life line. The goal, which was Marenich’s first-ever goal for his team, was expertly punched home from outside the area.

FC Moscow desperately fought for the golden equalizer, but were unable to find a way past Rubin's stubborn defense. With just five minutes to go the visitors sealed their vicitory with another goal.

Bukharov was brought down in the area, and substitute Alejandro Dominquez sent the keeper the wrong way to seal a well deserved 3-1 victory.

“I'm very pleased with what was a very disciplined performance by my players,” Rubin head coach Kurban Berdyev said after the game.

Meanwhile, FC Moscow coach Miodrag Bozhovic remained upbeat despite the painful loss, and acknowledged that there was room for improvement in his team’s overall performance.

“We created a number of good opportunities going foward,” Bozhovic said, “but there are also a few things we need to work on… we didn't play well in what was really a poor first half, but after the break, we scored with the first chance we created."

We conceded two very bad goals – the second one coming from a free kick,” the Moscow coach continued. “My team tried to get back in the match, but were unable to find an equalizer, and I think Rubin was the worthy winner in the end.”

This was a very important win for the defending champions, who fully deserved it, while FC Moscow will need to beat Spartak Moscow next week if they want to stay in the championship race.

Spartak Nalchik 2-4 Spartak Moscow

Meanwhile, Spartak Moscow has climbed the charts to second place, within a point of Rubin, after their 4-2 win over their team’s namesake from Nalchik.

The Moscow side went ahead just five minutes into the match, as Nikita Bazhenov's shot was blocked, but Welliton was in the neighborhood to fire one home on the rebound.

Spartak Moscow / flickr.com/photos/egor-chichkin/

Five minutes later, the wily Brazilian doubled the lead with a header from the corner.

The hosts managed to score a goal just before the break, when Vladimir Kisenkov made the most out of a long free-kick opportunity.

Things started to look more promising for 10 minutes after the restart of play when Nalchik Shamil Asildarov slotted the ball home for the equalizer.

However, Spartak regained the lead in the 75th minute thanks to the impressive footwork of the lightning-quick Vladimir Bystrov.

The visitors sealed the deal in injury time, when Aleksander Pavlenko was fouled in the box, and Welliton scored his third to make it 4-2 from the box.

Kuban 0-2 Saturn

Elsewhere, resurgent Saturn beat Kuban on the road, but the defeated team had their keepers to blame for their first home defeat of the season.

The hosts were reduced to ten men after Aleksey Botviniev handled the ball outside the penalty area just three minutes in.

They managed to hold off the visitors' attack for quite a while, but the pressure told with just 10 minutes to play.

Stand-in goalie Bogdan Karyukin got caught looking at Pyotr Nemov's header from the far post.

Four minutes later, Aleksey Ivanov earned Saturn a penalty and Dmitry Loskov blasted it past a stunned Karyukin.

Saturn has registered their third win in four games.