Ten-man Tosno peg back Spartak

MOSCOW: Spartak Moscow’s Russian title defence suffered a setback when they squandered a twogoal lead to draw 2-2 with 10-man Tosno, leaving their coach fuming.

Goals from Georgy Dzhikiya and Mario Pasalic put the Muscovites cruising to victory before a late slump let Tosno strikers Yevgeny Markov and Anton Zabolotny level in the last four minutes.

The result left Spartak in eighth, eight points behind leaders Zenit St Petersburg.

“It’s a big upset,” Spartak manager Massimo Carrera admitted.

“It’s inadmissible. It’s a shame to perform in such a way, for our fans, to the colours that we wear.”

At St Petersburg’s Petrovsky Stadium, Tosno fullback Vitaly Shakhov received a direct red card for a foul on Pedro Rocha in the 29th minute.

Spartak soon made the hosts pay as in the 35th minute Dzhikiya hammered a rebound through a forest of legs from just outside the area.

Pasalic added his goal in the 63rd minute beating Tosno goalkeeper David Yurchenko with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty box.

But the hosts refused to surrender and their second-half substitute striker Markov halved the deficit in the 86th minute while Zabolotny equalised in the last minute of regular time.

“I’m proud of my men, they’ve produced a small feat,” Tosno head coach Dmitry Parfenov said.

“We’ve selected the men with strong character and today they displayed their strength in full measure.

“Of course we’re happy to carve out a point taking into consideration the course of events.”