Zenit lose ground on CSKA after home defeat

MOSCOW: Reigning champions Zenit St Petersburg missed the chance to join CSKA Moscow at the top of the Russian Premier League after suffering a 2-0 home defeat to FC Krasnodar on Saturday.
Iceland centre-back Ragnar Sigurdsson and Colombian midfielder Ricardo Laborde set last season’s third-placed side FC Krasnodar on their way to a first ever win in Saint Petersburg as they move up to sixth place.
“This is the win that we really needed to boost our self-confidence,” FC Krasnodar manager Oleg Kononov said. “Today we played well in defence and threatened back on the counter-attack and it worked perfectly.
“I’m pleased with both the result and my team’s performance.”
Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit remain second, three points behind CSKA, who beat Spartak 2-1 in the Moscow derby on Friday.
Zenit dominated possession from the off but it was Sigurdsson, who silenced the home fans in the 26th minute with a close-range header from Laborde’s free-kick.
Zenit, spurred on by a capacity 21,000 crowd at Stadion Petrovsky, poured forward in search of the equaliser but they were hit on the counter as Laborde made it 2-0 five minutes after the break, beating ‘keeper Yury Lodygin from 30 yards.