Akhmat Grozny 4-1 Khimki
Sunday 12 December, Akhmat Arena

Goals: Akhmat - Timofeev (pen) 19’, (pen) 45+4’, Konate (pen) 50’, 65’; Khimki - Troshechkin 67’
Man of the Match: Artem Timofeev (Akhmat)

Akhmat rarely do things by halves, and they closed out the calendar year in typically blustering fashion as they picked a ropey Khimki apart to head all the way up to sixth. A hat-trick of penalties put them well in command before Konate added his second goal of the game against his former club. 

By the time Anton Troshechkin had pulled back a consolation shortly after the fourth Akhmat goal, it barely mattered with the result long gone. Even the goal itself - a scrappy tap-in after the balls bounced around the six-yard box - summed up the visitors’ disjointed performance.

Artem Arkhipov was brought down in the box by Maksim Karpov after 18 minutes for the first penalty, which Artem Timofeev took confidently down the middle as Ilya Lantratov committed to a pre-emptive dive. Timofeev doubled his and Akhmat’s tally from the spot again deep into first-half added time after Artem Sokolov handled a close-range cross while sliding in to cut it out.

Mohamed Konate came off the bench for the second half, and within 20 minutes had scored twice - but in truth he should have scored at least four himself. As it was he had to settle for just a penalty and a fine top-corner finish.

Akhmat go sixth on 27 points, while Khimki stay bottom on 14 points.

Next RPl fixtures: Saturday/Sunday 26/27 February 2022 - Khimki vs Dynamo; Akhmat vs Ufa