Russian league up for Grabs

Any of six Russian teams could finish second in the Russian league as the end of the season nears, Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Sergey Semak told RIA Novosti in a recent interview. Zenit have a nine-point lead at the top from CSKA Moscow, but second and seventh are separated by just six points, with the top three teams in the league earning Champions League qualification. The league has split into championship and relegation groups for the end of the season, leaving the top eight to fight for the title, although eighth-placed FC Kuban are now four points behind Anzhi in seventh. “I think that every team, excluding Kuban, has a very decent chance of second place,” Semak said. “Kuban have a slightly largely gap to the leaders, but everyone else can get involved in the fight for second place.” Semak refused to say explicitly that Zenit had the title in the bag. “It’s still too early to think about being the champions,” he said. Semak, 36, joined Zenit in 2010 from Rubin Kazan, where he won the Russian Premier League title in 2008 and 2009, after earlier winning the league with CSKA Moscow in 2003. He has 65 caps for Russia and featured prominently in the country’s charge to the semifinals of Euro 2008.