Sochi 1-2 Krasnodar
Sunday 5 December, Fisht Central Stadium

Goals: Sochi - Cassierra 19’; Krasnodar - Claesson (pen) 22’, 53’
Sent off: Krasnodar - Krychowiak 86’
Man of the Match: Viktor Claesson (Krasnodar)

Viktor Claesson struck twice, once from the penalty spot, to complete an impressive comeback win away to Sochi.

They had to do it the hard way though after Mateo Cassierra’s instinctive finish gave the home side the lead. After a Krasnodar counter attack broke down, Danila Prokhin lofted a ball over the top to the Colombian, who looked to be shepherded out wide. Cassierra’s clever hooked finish looped over Matvey Safonov and onto the post; while the Krasnodar keeper assumed it was going straight in, the ball bounced agonisingly along the goal line, leaving a last-gasp dive that only succeeded in pushing the ball into the net.

Barely three minutes later though, Eduard Spertsyan was caught in the penalty area by Ibragim Tsallagov, giving Claesson the perfect opportunity to level matters, which he did with ease.

Soon after the break he had put Krasnodar in front thanks to some brilliant anticipation from Aleksey Ionov. The Russia international carried the ball down the right flank in space, looked up, and picked out Claesson’s late run to perfection. All the Swede had to do was slam his sidefoot shot into the bottom corner on the run.

Ivelin Popov was brought off the bench in the last 10 minutes, and he’d barely been on the pitch before he had the ball in the net - unfortunately for him, his brilliant glancing header was ruled out, correctly, for offside.

With four minutes left Sochi were thrown a slender lifeline when Grzegorz Krychowiak was sent off for a lunge on Joaozinho, but his teammates managed to see out the remaining minutes to secure a valuable three points.

Sochi drop to fourth on 28 points, while Krasnodar go third on 28 points.

Next RPL fixtures: Sunday 12 December - Krasnodar vs Nizhny Novgorod; Monday 13 December - Sochi vs Spartak