CSKA holding up rather well...... MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Kirichenko's hat-trick powered CSKA Moscow to a 5-1 home win over Russian premier league strugglers Rostselmash Rostov on Friday. The striker opened the scoring eight minutes into the game, but Lithuanian international Arturas Fomenko equalised for the visitors 13 minutes later. Kirichenko put the army side back in front just before the break and Latvia midfielder Yuris Lajzans extended the lead to 3-1 shortly after the interval. Kirichenko completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute before substitute Spartak Gogniyev sealed the one-sided victory in stoppage time. Rostselmash will, however, have a chance for revenge next Tuesday when the two sides meet again in a rescheduled match from the first half of the season. Meanwhile, Kirichenko, who has scored ten goals for his club this season, justified his inclusion earlier in the week in the Russia squad for this month's international friendly against Sweden. Recently-appointed Russia coach Valery Gazzayev, who is also CSKA's trainer, named the 25-year-old in his provisional 59-man squad on Tuesday as he tries to rebuild the national team following Russia's dismal World Cup showing. Friday's win enabled CSKA to close the gap on league leaders and city rivals Lokomotiv and Spartak, both of whom won their matches on Wednesday. Lokomotiv beat Rotor Volgograd 2-0 to stay on top of the standings with 45 points from 20 matches, while champions Spartak scraped through 2-1 against Anji Makhachkala to lie three points adrift in second place. CSKA remain third on 39 points but have two games in hand, while 14th-placed Rostov, who suffered their 10th defeat in 18 league matches, are battling to avoid relegation in the 16-team competition.
CSKA's Russian titles hopes alive http://www.soccernet.com/england/news/2002/0817/20020917russiacska.html