22.04.2018 22:16 h

Loanee Dzyuba hurts Zenit's Champions League hopes

Artem Dzyuba (r.)
Artem Dzyuba (r.)

Forward Artem Dzyuba, on loan at Arsenal Tula from Zenit St Petersburg, netted a costly late equaliser against his parent club in a dramatic 3-3 draw on Sunday.

The goal was a damaging blow to Zenit's Champions League hopes while the terms of Dzyuba's loan deal stipulated he could only play in the match if a 120,000-euro ($147,000) fee was paid.

Dzyuba told the media he was ready to pay out of his own pocket, although reports said Arsenal club bosses and the governor of the Tula region reached an agreement with Zenit officials over the striker's participation.

Arsenal got off to a flying start through Igor Gorbatenko, who fired the ball home from the edge of the area in the third minute.

Argentinian Leandro Paredes levelled in the 36th minute but Sergei Tkachev restored Arsenal's lead right before the break.

In the 77th minute Gorbatenko was sent off for a second bookable offence and Arsenal paid the price as Daler Kuzyaev scored twice in two minutes to put Zenit 3-2 up.

But Dzyuba levelled on 88 minutes and celebrated by animatedly pointing to the name on the back of his shirt in front of Zenit manager Roberto Mancini, having fallen out of favour with the Italian.

"It was a great match and it's a pity that we failed to win it," said Dzyuba, who joined Arsenal in January. "We played high quality football thanks to the efforts of every single player."

While congratulating Dzyuba, Mancini expressed his unhappiness at the result.

"This draw is dropped points for us," Mancini said. "We played with a numerical advantage, we led the score but conceded a goal."

Lokomotiv Moscow edged closer towards a first Russian Premier League title in 14 years despite labouring to another 0-0 draw at home to Ufa.

It was a second successive goalless stalemate for Lokomotiv following Wednesday's draw against Akhmat Grozny but left the leaders six points clear of CSKA Moscow with just three matches to play.

Reigning champions Spartak Moscow, who visit struggling Akhmat on Monday, are one point further back in third place.

"The draw is a good enough result for us," Ufa head coach Sergei Semak said. "Today both teams were poor in attack and made too many mistakes. The draw looks the most logical result."

Nigeria international Ahmed Musa scored twice as CSKA battled back from a goal down to beat visitors Krasnodar 2-1 and leapfrog Spartak in the race for an automatic Champions League berth.

Midfielder Yury Gazinsky put Krasnodar into the lead eight minutes into the second period with a close-range shot after a one-two with Brazilian Wanderson.

But Musa, who rejoined CSKA on loan from Leicester City in January, equalised on 73 minutes and then netted the winner five minutes from time.

"Even after we conceded a goal I was sure that we will win the match," Musa said. "We just don't have the right to lose any more matches."