MOSCOW: Angolan defender Jacinto Bastos and Ecuadorian midfielder Christian Noboa both scored early in a 2-0 win over 10-man Spartak Moscow on Saturday which put Rostov top of the Russian league.
Rostov move one point above second-placed CSKA Moscow, who face champions Zenit St Petersburg on Sunday, with Lokomotiv Moscow third, five points further back ahead of their game against Rubin Kazan.
"We were lucky to score an early opener and it gave us a certain advantage," Rostov manager Kurban Berdyev said.
"We're top of the league - it's very inspiring. But we're not taking it for granted. Next week we meet Anzhi, who desperately need points. I expect a very tough match at Makhachkala."
Rostov, spurred by a capacity 15,800 home crowd, got off to a flying start through Bastos who opened after two minutes with a close-range header off a Noboa freekick.
Spartak's Paraguayan striker Lorenzo Melgarejo missed a chance to level 10 minutes later as his unopposed close-range shot hit the woodwork and bounced back into play.
Noboa scored the second after 20 minutes when he headed in a pinpoint cross from the left by Dmitry Poloz.
Spartak's slim hopes of saving the day went up in smoke in the 80th minute when their left winger Dmitry Kombarov was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Elsewhere, Terek Grozny, sitting fourth, battled back from a goal down to beat bottom-placed visitors Anzhi Makhachkala 3-2 to boost their chances of European football next season.
Anzhi took the lead through Serbian back Darko Lazic after seven minutes, when he headed into the net off a well-served corner.
Romanian midfielder Gheorghe Grozav scored twice within 15 minutes to put Terek 2-1 up but Anzhi's French striker Yannick Boli levelled just before the break after a mix-up in the home team's defence.
Senegalese forward Ablaye M'bengue netted Terek's winning goal with three minutes to go sending home a rebound after Anzhi keeper David Yurchenko parried a 16-yard attempt by Daler Kuzyaev.
"We played too carelessly before the break allowing Anzhi to score in the dead ball situations and on the counter-attack," Terek manager Rashid Rakhimov said.
"Luckily, we showed some muscle and reversed the situation to score the late winner."
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