MOSCOW: CSKA Moscow beat visitors Terek Grozny 1-0 on Saturday to leapfrog Rostov and regain top spot in the Russian Premier League table.
Swede Pontus Wernbloom's goal set CSKA on their way to a win which left them two points ahead of Rostov, who topped the league ahead of Saturday's matches after beating Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 on Friday, with just three games remaining.
"We started well, netted a goal and had more chances to score in the first half," CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky said.
"After the break we played more cautiously and gave Terek no chance to create any serious threat. But we still need to improve our attacking performance."
CSKA dominated early but squandered a host of chances before the 18th minute when Wernbloom opened the scoring with a close-range header from Alan Dzagoev's free-kick.
After the break Terek poured forwards seeking an equaliser, but their hopes of rescuing a point went up in smoke with 10 minutes remaining when Australian defender Luke Wilkshire was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Elsewhere, reigning champions Zenit St Petersburg beat bottom-placed Anzi Makhachkala 1-0 to stay four points behind CSKA in third.
The only goal came in the 26th minute when Artem Dzyuba slotted in from Hulk's pass, as the Brazilian striker made his 20th assist of the season.
The home team pushed Zenit back in the second half but could not find an equaliser, with Albanian midfielder Bernard Berisha's last-minute second yellow card all but ending the contest.
"Of course we have difficulties today because this team (Anzhi) played for survival," Zenit head coach Andre Villas-Boas said.
"They played for not going down. We had a competitive game. But it was a fair win as we created chances and could score the second goal."
Meanwhile, FC Krasnodar's hopes of a maiden Russian title suffered a setback as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Rubin Kazan.
Maxim Kanunnikov tapped into an empty net to give Rubin a 29th-minute lead, after a terrible mistake by Krasnodar keeper Stanislav Kritsyuk.
Russian international forward Fedor Smolov levelled 10 minutes after the interval when he converted Vitali Kaleshin's cross to maintain his lead in the league's scorers chart with 17 goals so far this term.
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