Midfielder Pavel Mamaev scored twice to keep FC Krasnodar in the Russian Premiership’s top three with a 4-0 win over strugglers Mordovia Saransk on Saturday.

FC Krasnodar have 41 points from 21 matches to stay seven behind leaders Zenit St Petersburg, who will meet second-placed reigning champions CSKA Moscow, on Sunday.

“It was a good match,” FC Krasnodar manager Oleg Kononov said.

“I’m pleased with the self-confidence that my team showed. We were the better side and won deservedly today.”

Krasnodar got off to a lively start as their playmaker Roman Shirokov found the unmarked Mamaev in the area and he hammered the ball past visiting ‘keeper Anton Kochenkov five minutes into the match.

In the 58th minute Krasnodar were awarded a penalty after Mordovia back Igor Shitov played handball in his box but the spotkick by the Swede Andreas Granqvist was confidently parried by Kochenkov.

Mamaev scored his second in the 71st minute with an unopposed 10-metre shot after a Mordovia defensive blunder, while Ricardo Laborde and Vladimir Bystrov added one apiece in the late stages to secure the hosts’ well-deserved win.

Earlier, Dynamo Moscow were denied a win over 10-man city rivals Lokomotiv as midfielder Manuel Fernandes scored a penalty with 10 minutes remaining to earn the railway-backed side a 2-2 draw.

French midfielder William Vainqueur put Dynamo in front in the 40th minute when he received a pinpoint pass from countryman Mathieu Valbuena and dribbled into the area to fire in from 13 metres.

Lokomotiv Serbian forward Petar Skuletic levelled just before the break as he sent the ball into the net with a help of a ricochet off Dynamo back Tomas Hubocan.

Two minutes after the interval Valbuena helped the ball on to Yury Zhirkov in the box and Lokomotiv defender Alexander Sheshukov was shown a straight red card for bringing him down.

German forward Kevin Kuranyi put Dynamo 2-1 up with a precise spotkick sending Lokomotiv ‘keeper Marinato Guilherme wrong way.

But Dynamo failed to keep their lead through as their Dutch back Alexander Buttner conceded a penalty.

Former Tottenham forward Roman Pavlyuchenko’s spotkick hit the woodwork and bounced back to find the hand of Dynamo right back Alexei Kozlov and Portuguese midfielder Fernandes calmly stroked into the corner with another spotkick.

“We squandered plenty of chances in the second half and paid for our wastefulness,” Dynamo head coach Stanislav Cherchesov said.