A debut hat-trick from Yura Movsisyan for Spartak Moscow brought his team a 3-1 win over Terek Grozny on Sunday.
The nine-time Russian champions move to fifth in the standings, level on points with fourth-placed FC Kuban, while Terek drop to seventh.
Movsisyan, who joined the club in December from FC Krasnodar, scored an early opener, poking the ball into the corner after Artem Dzyuba flicked on a throw-in from Kirill Kombarov.
The Armenian forward’s second came on 29 minutes with a 25-yard screamer off a backheel from Ari.
The hat-trick was complete with 15 minutes left of the game, Movsisyan ghosting away from Terek’s Finnish defender Juhani Ojala before slamming the ball into the far corner of Yaroslav Godzyur’s goal.
Movsisyan becomes Russian Premier League top scorer on 12 goals, two ahead of second-placed Alexander Kerzhakov of Zenit St. Petersburg.
Terek managed a consolation goal on 78 minutes when Spartak goalkeeper Sergei Pesyakov blundered and deflected a Mauricio free kick into the net.
Movsisyan could have had another when he came close on 12 minutes, but was denied by Godzyur.
Late on, Terek threatened an unlikely comeback with the score at 3-1. Pesyakov rushed out but missed the ball, leaving the goal wide open, but Terek’s Brazilian midfielder Kanu reacted too slowly to convert the chance, R-Sport reports.
