We have rounded up all the key stats and highlights from matchday 18 of the Russian Premier Liga.

Defender Ilya Samoshnikov has now scored one goal in every professional league. Having scored once in the PFL and FNL, the 23-year-old Rubin player scored his debut RPL goal to help his side win in Saransk against Tambov. His previous career goals also helped his teams win. In October 2017, he scored for Ararat Moscow in the 2-0 win against Saturn in the PFL, and in October 2019, he scored in the FNL for Torpedo to help them beat Spartak-II 3-2.

For the second time in a year, CSKA and Ural drew at the VEB Arena, and again one of the teams escaped defeat at the death. In March, Mario Fernandes equalised in added time to make it 1-1, and nine months later, Ural snatched a draw in the 89th minute, despite playing in the minority after Pavel Pogrebnyak’s dismissal, thanks to Igor Kalinin’s second career RPL goal - the first came for Rubin against Anzhi in November 2018. Before this year Ural had only twice not lost to CSKA in the RPL, both times in Ekaterinburg, earning a 2-2 draw in 2013 and a goalless draw in 2017.

Ilya Kukharchuk’s scoring streak has extended to three matches. The last time the forward managed the feat came in the summer of 2014, when he scored for Volga from matchdays three to five in the FNL. The 30-year-old Khimki striker scored for the first time this season in the 2-1 win over Ufa, then missed the following match against Krasnodar due to a yellow-card suspension, but then scored in the 2-2 draw with CSKA and 1-0 win over Arsenal. Now Kukharchuk is Khimki’s second-highest scorer alongside Arshak Koryan but behind Reziuan Mirzov, who has scored four times.

Roman Tugarev, who plays for Rostov on loan from Lokomotiv, scored the fourth free kick in his senior career. The 22-year-old midfielder scored from a set piece with the help of teammate Haitam Aleesami against Akhmat and earned Rostov's first victory in four years in Grozny, and his first RPL goal. Earlier, Tugarev had scored free kicks in the PFL for Kazanka, and in those games Lokomotiv’s farm team beat Tekstilshchik 4-1 in September 2017, Luki-Energiya 2-1 in August 2018, and Murom 3-1 in September 2018.

Khimki have not lost in their last five RPL matches, equalling their previous best winless streak in the league. Between matchday 7 and 11 in 2007, Khimki beat Spartak Nalchik and Spartak Moscow, FC Moscow, and also drew with Saturn and Rostov. During the current run, Igor Cherevchenko's team have won at home against Rubin, Krasnodar and Arsenal, away to Ufa, and took one point from CSKA. Before the winter break, the Red-Blacks will play again at the Khimki Arena on 17 December, when they host Lokomotiv.

For six consecutive seasons, Zenit have beaten Dynamo in St. Petersburg. During this time, the Blue-White-Sky Blues have won twice over the Muscovites at Petrovsky Stadium and four times at the Gazprom Arena. At Zenit’s current home, Dynamo have scored only two goals.Toni Sunjic scored in April 2018, and now Nikolay Komlichenko has scored from the penalty spot. In the last three matches for Zenit against Dynamo in St. Petersburg, Artem Dzyuba and Sardar Azmoun have always scored. They now lead the RPL goalscoring race together on 10 goals each.

Christian Noboa has scored eight goals against Spartak, more often than against anyone in the RPL. The Ecuadorian scored half of them for Rubin, one each for Dynamo and Rostov, and twice in 2020 for Sochi. In August, the midfielder converted a penalty in the 2-2 draw at the Otkritie Arena, and in December brought Sochi victory at the Fisht Olympic Stadium. This goal is also his eighth this season, which saw the 35-year-old repeat his personal record set in 2010 at Rubin. Ten years ago, he scored eight goals in 27 games; now he only needed 14.

For the first time in nine years, Evgeny Gorodov saved a penalty for Krasnodar. The goalkeeper, who celebrated his 35th birthday on the day of the game against Lokomotiv, kept out Anton Miranchuk’s effort with the score at 2-0. He twice saved spot kicks for Krasnodar in the team's first season in the RPL in 2011, when he denied Spartak Nalchik’s Roman Kontsedalov and Rubin’s Christian Noboa, and twice more opponents missed the target. In total, Gorodov saved his fourth RPL penalty. He made another save last autumn after saving from Dynamo’s Kirill Panchenko for Akhmat.

Krasnodar have scored ten unanswered goals across the last two matchdays. For the first time in the RPL, one team has won two consecutive games 5-0. After the defeat of Rotor on matchday 17, the southerners beat Lokomotiv by the same scoreline and inflicted the biggest defeat in the Premier Liga on the Railwaymen. The Muscovites had also set their previous unwanted record in Krasnodar, when they lost 6-2 to Kuban in November 2015. Krasnodar won by a five-goal margin for the third time this season - the September 7-2 victory over Khimki was one of the largest in the club's history.

Artem Dzyuba has now scored 13 goals against Dynamo in the RPL. The Zenit forward has scored the same number against Krasnodar (13 goals in the league, as well as one in the Russian Cup). The striker has scored in three consecutive seasons against the Muscovites at the Gazprom Arena, only in April and December 2019 he only scored once, whereas in the last meeting he scored a double. Dzyuba has scored most of his goals against Dynamo for Zenit (seven); he also scored three more times for Spartak, and once each for Tom, Rostov and Arsenal.

For 16 years and 11 matches, Rotor's winless home streak in the RPL continued until the victory over Ufa at the Volgograd Arena, which was incidentally their first against the Bashkortostan side. Rotor had taken one point in eight previous games, last winning at home in 2004 - their last season in the league - on September 25 at Central Stadium over Rostov on matchday 24. After that 3-2 victory, they drew twice, lost to Zenit 5-2 and were relegated to the first division.

Marcus Berg has now scored 17 RPL goals after his double against Lokomotiv. In terms of goals scored in the league by Swedish players, the 34-year-old striker caught up with former CSKA midfielder Pontus Wernbloom, who scored 17 times in 167 games between 2012 and 2018. Only one Swede has scored more than Berg and Wernbloom, and he plays alongside Berg for Krasnodar: Viktor Claesson. The midfielder, who has been playing in Russia since 2017, also scored against Lokomotiv, and now has 28 goals in the RPL.

Nikola Vlasic has scored 25 goals in the RPL. The midfielder reached the anniversary mark thanks to a penalty against Ural, and is now 10 goals behind the best Croatian scorer in the history of the league, Ivica Olic, who scored 35 times for CSKA. For the second season in a row, the Croat is the Armymen’s most productive player in the RPL. Vlasic scored 12 goals in the last campaign, and this time he leads the team with eight goals.

Tambov goalkeeper Sergey Ryzhikov played in his 350th RPL game, excluding two relegation playoff games for Krylia Sovetov against Nizhny Novgorod in the 2018/19 season. The anniversary fell on the match against Rubin, for whom the goalkeeper played most of those games - 281 from 2008 to 2018 - and became a two-time champion of Russia. After leaving the Kazan club, he played 42 games for Krylia, and has appeared in 17 of the 18 matches this season for Tambov.

Photo: Sergey Kulakov/FC Sochi