The St. Petersburg team took advantage of an extra man at the start of the second 45 minutes. The on form Aleksandr Kerzhakov was first on the rebound after Igor Denisov’s shot in the 49th minute, making it 1-0. It was the strikers 10th goal of the season.

And if Amkar had any hopes of coming back into the game, they were killed off by a second yellow for their other defender Vitaly Fedoriv a couple of minutes later.

The nine-man side had absolutely no chance against Zenit, who are still unbeaten this season, with 22 games played already.

Roman Shirokov doubled the home team’s lead in the 64th minute, calmly converting a penalty and setting the final 2-0 score.

Luciano Spalletti’s men continue their reign in the Russian Premier League, having 59 points, with their nearest rival more than ten points behind.

Rubin Kazan 2-1 Rostov

Defending champions Rubin remain in second as they came from a goal down to beat Rostov at home.

All the main events of the game in Kazan occurred in early play.

Rubin keeper Sergey Ryzhikov coped with Aleksandr Pavlenko's shot from the penalty spot, but was helpless against the rebound, allowing the visitors to take the lead in the 4th minute.

But the Kazan side struck twice in 2-minutes time, through Bibras Natkho and Obafemi Martins, and found themselves in the lead just 10 minutes later.

FC Tom 2-2 Saturn Moscow Region

No winner emerged in the clash between the 10th and 11th team of the Russian Premier League table as the teams exchanged goals in both halves.

Artyom Dzyuba’s flying header gave Tomsk the lead after 18 minutes, but Saturn veteran Andrey Karyaka curved in a beautiful ball into the upper corner of Sergey Pareiko’s goals to make it 1-1, seven minutes later.

Dzyuba had a great chance to restore the gap for the hosts, but missed from penalty spot with 12 minutes remaining in the opening half.

The Tom striker rehabilitated for his failure soon after the restart, beating keeper Antonin Kinsky with a low shot to grab his second goal of the match.

But the Siberian side were once again unable to hold on to their lead as substitute Marko Topic scored after Karyaka’s cross, 2-2.