An early goal from Alexander Kokorin proved enough to give Dynamo Moscow a 1-0 home win over Krylya Sovetov in their Premier League match on Saturday.
Dan Peterscu’s Dynamo continue their recovery from a disastrous start to the season and are now 11th, while Krylya Sovetov drop to 12th after a five-game winless run.
Kokorin scored the winner on 13 minutes after playing a one-two with Kevin Kuranyi, who nutmegged a defender with the final pass to put Kokorin through for his fifth goal in the last five games.
The teams struggled with heavy rain throughout, although it was not quite of the scale that reduced a game between the two last year to a farce in swamp-like conditions.
Krylya had their first real chance near the end of the first half when Roman Grigoryan missed a curling shot after Paraguayan forward Luis Caballero played him in the area.
Soon after, Dynamo’s strike partnership of Kuranyi and Kokorin tried to combine for a second goal, but this time goalkeeper Sergei Veremko was on hand to deny Kuranyi.
Early in the second half, a cross from Dynamo winger Jakob Jantscher found Balazs Dzsudzsak in the box, and the Hungarian beat a defender and shot for the near corner, but the ball ended up with Veremko.
On 88 minutes, Krylya’s Roman Vorobiev delivered a powerful 25-inch strike in seach of an equalizer, but Dynamo keeper Anton Shunin made a confident save to guard his first clean sheet of the season.
Later Sunday, Rubin Kazan host Anzhi and surprise package Terek Grozny meet second-placed CSKA Moscow.
Saturday saw Spartak Moscow beating Mordovia Saransk 2-0 at home, while FC Krasnodar drew 1-1 away to last placed side FC Volga.
A brace from Alexander Kerzhakov brought Zenit St. Petersburg a 3-2 victory away to minnows Alania Vladikavkaz.
On Friday, Lokomotiv Moscow went down to a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Amkar Perm and a late goal from Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov gave FC Kuban a 1-0 victory at home to FC Rostov.
