Lokomotiv steam ahead in Russia

Goals by Alexander Samedov, Baye Oumar Niasse and Maicon set the railway-backed side on their way to a well-deserved win, which left them one point clear of champions Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow, who will face Ufa and Amkar Perm on Sunday respectively.

In the 28th minute Samedov had the 200 Lokomotiv supporters, who had travelled to Yekaterinburg, on their feet as he sent the ball into the net with a 35-yard freekick.

Senegalese forward Niasse added his goal five minutes before the break when he beat Ural goalkeeper Dmitry Arapov with a powerful shot from the edge of the box.

After the interval, Ural moved up a gear and midfielder Alexander Yerokhin pulled one back with 17 minutes remaining but Brazilian striker Maicon restored Lokomotiv's two-goal advantage in injury time. 

"I'm a bit upset as we missed four clear chances in the first half," Lokomotiv manager Igor Cherevchenko said.

"If we had converted all these opportunities, we could have avoided a nervous ending after Ural scored a consolation. Luckily, we scored one more to secure the win."

Elsewhere, Mathieu Valbuena scored Dynamo Moscow's winner after his club battled back from a goal down twice to chalk up their first win this season with a 3-2 success at 10-man Anzhi Makhachkala.

Midfielder Ilya Maximov put Anzhi into the lead in the fifth minute when he slotted the ball in from seven yards but Alexei Kozlov levelled matters 15 minutes later with a header off a well-struck freekick by Valbuena.

French forward Yannick Boli lifted Anzhi 2-1 up with a Panenka-style spotkick in the 35th minute after he was brought down in the area. 

But Slovak Tomas Hubocan levelled again in first half stoppage-time, lobbing the ball into the net with a header from just inside the penalty box.

Valbuena netted the winner from the spot in the 79th minute after Alexei Ionov was fouled in the area by skipper Ali Gadzhibeckov, who was shown a direct red card for his foul.

"It was a very interesting match and a very important win for us," Dynamo head coach Andrei Kobelev said.

"It wasn't our best match this season but in general I'm pleased with my team's performance."