Amkar beat Terek to keep leaders under pressure

MOSCOW: Amkar Perm battled back from a goal down to chalk up a 3-1 away win over Chechen republic outfit Terek Grozny in the Russian top flight on Saturday.

The result lifted Amkar into third, equal on 14 points with CSKA Moscow who face bottomplaced Samara on Sunday and five points behind the league leaders Spartak Moscow, who beat Orenburg 3-1 on Friday.

Terek started in a lively manner and in the ninth minute Brazilian full back Rodolfo had the home crowd on their feet as he fired into the top right-handed corner with a powerful freekick from 25 yards out.

But Amkar’s Serbian defender Aleksandar Miljkovic pulled the scores level in the 26th minute when headed home after Terek ‘keeper Jaroslav Gordzyur schoolboy’s error.

Nikolai Zaitsev put Amkar into the lead six minutes after the interval scoring with a close-range header, while Polish midfielder Janusz Gol converted from the spot with 15 minutes to go to secure the visitors win.

“We played very disciplined football and it was the key factor to our success,” Amkar manager Gadzi Gazhiev said.

“I’m happy that my players understood clearly what to do at the pitch and played according to the plan. We’ve played a very good match today.”

In the early Saturday’s match Anzhi Makhachkala beat Ural Yekaterinburg 1-0 to go fifth. AFP