MOSCOW: Brazilian forward Hulk scored twice as Zenit St Petersburg extended their Russian Premiership lead with a 2-1 win over CSKA Moscow on Sunday.
Zenit have 51 points from 21 matches, eight points ahead of CSKA with FC Krasnodar, who thrashed 4-0 Mordovia Saransk on Saturday, sitting third on 41 points.
"We played better and were the better team today," Zenit manager Andre Villas-Boas said. "But we can't relax. We still have a lot of games and eight points is nothing in this competitive league.
"Everything is very open and I don't believe that CSKA have stopped dreaming about the championship. So I'm sure that we still have a tough fight to go."
In a dour first half the only scoring opportunity came in the 43rd minute when Hulk found the unmarked Miguel Danny in the area but CSKA keeper Igor Akinfeyev parried the Zenit skipper's 10-metre shot.
But just past the hour mark Hulk had the home crowd on their feet as he managed to avoid an offside trap to receive Oleg Shatov's pinpoint pass and smashed home past helpless Akinfeyev from 20 metres.
In the 73rd minute Hulk doubled Zenit's advantage with his season's 11th goal, sweeping in a rebound after Akinfeyev deflected Danny's close-range attempt.
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