Zenit maintain perfect start
Reigning champions Zenit St Petersburg made it two wins out of two in the Russian Premier League when they beat visiting Dynamo Moscow 2-0 on Saturday.
Russian international striker Alexander Kerzhakov and Italian international left-back Domenico Criscito were both on target for Zenit, who maintain their perfect start to the season.
Zenit opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Kerzhakov latched on to a Criscito pass and fired home from the edge of the six-yard box.
The home side controlled the game after that and deservedly doubled their lead in the 71st minute when Igor Denisov fed Criscito, who converted from close range.
"Today we played very well defensively and allowed Dynamo very few chances," Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti said.
"However, we need to buy some new players to strengthen our team and to boost competition for places in the line-up."
Another Moscow side, Lokomotiv, had little trouble disposing of Samara to record their second win in as many games this season.
Ex-Tottenham forward Roman Pavlyuchenko opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark before Ecuadorian striker Felipe Caicedo, on as a substitute, secured a well-deserved win for Slaven Bilic's side midway through the second half.
Meanwhile, three-time champions CSKA Moscow suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 3-1 away to Amkar Perm.
Amkar seized the lead in the sixth minute courtesy of a header from forward Nikita Burmistrov only for the Red Army side to pull level soon after thanks to Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda.
However, Alexei Rebko scored twice before the break to put Amkar 3-1 up, and CSKA missed a chance to reduce the arrears in first-half stoppage time when Honda had a penalty saved by 'keeper Sergei Narubin.
And the capital side ended a miserable day with nine men as Sergei Ignashevich and Alan Dzagoev were both sent off after the restart.
