FC Krasnodar striker Yura Movsisyan scored twice in the first half to set up a 6-1 thrashing of newly promoted Mordovia Saransk in the Russian Premier League on Friday.
Krasnodar moved up three places in the table as they clinched tenth with 11 points. Mordovia, making its debut in the top flight this season, are 14th with four points after nine games.
Movsisyan’s brace brought his tally of goals to eight, two goals clear of his nearest opponents in the scoring charts.
The Armenian-American striker opened the scoring for the home team in the fifth minute when he left his marker for dead to pick up a pass from deep and guide his effort in the far corner from ten yards.
It took six minutes for Mordovia to respond in a similar manner, with Alexei Ivanov slogging his way through the midfield to release Anton Bobyor, who easily beat goalkeeper Andrei Sinitsyn in a one-on-one with a strike from the edge of the penalty area.
Krasnodar looked set to restore their advantage as they applied heavy pressure on Dmitry Abakumov’s goal.
They succeeded on 30 minutes, when Joaozinho was allowed acres of space on the left flank to run and produce a cross for Movsisyan, who tapped home from just outside the six-yard-box.
Mordovia then shot themselves in the foot as Abakumov punched a corner right into the path of Alexander Martynovich, who scored from close range.
Movsisyan was the architect of Krasnodar’s next goal, when in the 54th minute he went on a mazy run into the box, beating a couple of defenders before generously offloading to Dusan Andelkovic, who had little trouble scoring from three yards.
Krasnodar heaped more misery on the visitors one minute later when Vladislav Ignatyev scored from ten yards via a deflection from the far post.
The final blow came on the 90th minute, with Wanderson outplaying the hapless Aleksandar Simcevic to drive home from 12 yards.
