MOSCOW: Roberto Mancini's Zenit St Petersburg held on to top spot in the Russian Premier League following a 0-0 draw away to third-placed CSKA Moscow on Sunday.
The result left Zenit three points clear of Lokomotiv Moscow, who face Krasnodar on Monday, while CSKA remain in third, one point further back.
"CSKA played aggressively in the first half. They were slightly more fresh as they had one extra day for recovery," said Mancini whose side had been in Europa League action on Thursday.
"The result looks fair but we had the best chance of the match. We should have converted it."
CSKA, who slumped to a 2-0 Champions League defeat against Basel in midweek, suffered from poor finishing while Zenit goalkeeper Andrei Lunev was in top form.
"We wanted to improve our play after the Basel match and we did it," CSKA head coach Viktor Gancharenko said.
"A classy team can't afford to play poorly in two consecutive games."
Elsewhere, Ural Yekaterinburg recorded a 2-0 win over Akhmat Grozny, which lifted them into fourth, seven points behind Zenit.
Bulgarian midfielder Nikolay Dimitrov and Alexei Yevseyev were the men on target for Ural.