Spartak Moscow have suffered a big setback in their quest to win the Russian Premier League title following their defeat at the hands of title rivals and league leaders Zenit St. Petersburg.Before their penultimate league game at PFC Sochi on Saturday, Spartak Moscow were in a fantastic position but results from the last two league games have changed the complexion of things as far as their quest for the league title is concerned. Before they were beaten 1-0 at fourth-placed Sochi at the weekend, Spartak Moscow has the same points (35) as league leaders Zenit St. Petersburg who occupied the summit as at then due to their superior goal difference. Two games later, Spartak Moscow are still in second place but they are now trailing Zenit St. Petersburg by six points after a wretched run of two straight defeats. To make matters worse, Zenit picked up six points from their last two matches including the home win over Spartak Moscow to open up a six-point lead over their title rivals at the top of the Russian Premier League table.

Spartak Moscow followed up the slim defeat at Sochi in week 18 with a crushing 3-1 loss to Zenit in the pick of the week 19 games scheduled for this week in the top flight of Russian football. The game at Zenit afforded Spartak Moscow with the opportunity to close the gap on their hosts at the top of the table after the Sochi setback at the weekend. A win would have taken Spartak Moscow to the same number of points (38) as their title rivals. However, they ended up on the losing side to further increase the gap between them and Zenit at the summit.

SardarAzmounis a Zenit forward known as the Iranian Messi and he gave his team the lead against Spartak Moscow on Wednesday as early as the eighth minute before a DejanLovren own goal around the midway point of the first half pulled the visitors level till the half-time interval.Zenit then went on to score two goals in the last 20 minutes through Ukrainian defender YaroslavRakitskiy and Russian striker ArtemDyzuba to win the game and move six points clear of their opponents.