CSKA thrash 10-man Kuban to keep pressure on Zenit

20 April 2014 17:32

Russian champions CSKA Moscow kept their hopes alive of retaining the title on Sunday with a 4-0 win over 10-man Kuban Krasnodar.

CSKA's victory leaves them in third position four points adrift of tabletoppers Zenit St Petersburg and three shy of Lokomotiv Moscow with four games remaining.

On Saturday Zenit and Lokomotiv had posted victories beating bottom side Anzhi Makhachkala away and Terek Grozny at home respectively both by the same scoreline 2-1.

Zenit's win was their fifth in a row under Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas, who replaced Italian Luciano Spalletti in mid-March.

Another Moscow side Dynamo's remote hopes of winning the title probably suffered its final death knell with a 2-1 defeat at home to mid-table Kuban Krasnodar.

Dynamo were 1-0 up and firmly in control of the game until Alexei Kozlov was sent off two minutes into the second-half.

They are 10 points behind Zenit.

CSKA went into the break of their game firmly in the driving seat at 2-0 and with their opponents reduced to 10 men after Roman Bugaev was sent off for a professional foul on the stroke of half-time.

CSKA's Ivory Coast international Seydou Dumbia converted the resulting penalty for his 15th goal of the campaign to add to Swiss Steven Zuber's 38th minute opener, his first of the season.

Konstantin Bazelyuk and Serbian playmaker Zoran Tosic, who had set up Zuber's goal, added further goals in the second-half.

"It was a pretty tight match until Bugaev was sent off," CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said.

"After the break we experienced few problems in controlling the game.

"With four matches remaining, the battle for the title is in the decisive stage. But everything is still possible."

Source: AFP