Spartak Moscow 2-1 Akhmat Grozny 
Saturday 4 December, Otkritie Bank Arena 

Goals: Spartak - Moses 13', Promes 87’; Akhmat - Utkin 45+2'
Sent off: Spartak - Sobolev 33'
Man of the Match: Quincy Promes (Spartak)

Spartak burst out of the blocks with real intent and took a deserved early lead carved out by their entire forward line. 

Quincy Promes threaded a simple ball out wide behind the full back to pick out Aleksandr Sobolev's unselfish run wide. Spartak's target man hit a low hard cross through a small crowd of defenders towards the far side for Victor Moses to smack a side footed effort past Vitaly Gudiev via a small but crucial deflection. 

Just after the half-hour mark though, disaster struck, when Aleksandr Sobolev was shown a straight red card for planting his studs into Igor Konovalov's shin. In one fell swoop the wind was sucked out of Spartak's sails, and on first-half added time Akhmat made the man advantage count. 

Anton Shvets headed the ball towards the area, where  hooked it onwards behind the defence for Daniel Utkin to guide it into the bottom corner. The former Krasnodar midfielder almost bagged an audacious second a couple of minutes later, but his overhead kick squeezed just wide. 

Spartak regained some semblance of control after the break, but struggled to make clear-cut incisions into Akhmat’s defence. With time running out though, it was the flying Dutchman who steamed into save the day.

A clever body swerve on the halfway line from Ayrton Lucas helped the Brazilian beat his man and feed Roman Zobnin down the left flank. Promes drifted towards the back post when Zobnin’s deep inswinging cross found him to hook a simple volleyed finish past Gudiev, whose positioning left a lot to be desired.

Rui Vitoria won’t care one jot, as his players mobbed their manager ecstatically to seal a dramatic win.

Spartak go ninth on 23 points, while Akhmat remain seventh on 24 points. 

Next RPL fixtures: Sunday 12 December - Akhmat vs Khimki; Monday 13 December - Sochi vs Spartak