Rubin at the double

Football: A 0-0 draw at home to Zenit St. Petersburg was good enough to hand Rubin Kazan the Russian title for the second season running.

That stalemate, coupled with Spartak's defeat to CSKA, gave Kurban Berdyev's team an unassailable five-point lead with one game to play. And it provides the Tatar side with a huge boost ahead of Tuesday's Champions League clash with Dinamo Kiev.

A win there would give them a great chance of reaching the knock-out phase in their first year among Europe's elite.

Europe on the line

Football: CSKA host Wolfsburg in the Champions League on Wednesday (8:30 pm) needing a win to maintain their hopes of reaching the knock-out stage of the competition.

The Army Men picked up a valuable point in a 3-3 draw at Manchester United in the last game - and were just a few minutes away from bagging a famous victory at Old Trafford. Now a win over the German champions, who beat them 3-1 in the opening match of the tournament, would put the sides level on seven points with one game remaining.

But anything less than victory at Luzhniki would see Leonid Slutsky's side scrapping it out with Besiktas, their final opponents, for third place and the consolation prize of a Europa League last 32 berth.

CSKA go into the match on a high, following Saturday's derby win over Spartak which ended their bitter rivals' hopes of winning the Russian championship.

But Wolfsburg coach Armin Veh was fuming after a last-minute goal saw his team lose 3-2 at home to FC Nurnburg in an error-strewn display.

Filatov opens account

Hockey: CSKA ended their recent five-match losing streak with a resounding 4-1 win at Traktor Chelyabinsk, thanks to an impressive display from 19-year-old Nikita Filatov.

The teenager scored one and collected two assists - his first points in Russian hockey - as he marked his return from a brief spell in North America with a match-winning performance.

Dinamo picked up back-to-back wins, and demonstrated their strength in depth to sink Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and HK MVD. Against Loko it was the two Czech mates, Karel Rahunek (two goals, one assist) and Jiri Hudler (one goal, two assists) who did most of the damage in a 4-2 win. But in Balashikha, it was the team's third line - and especially Alexei Kaluzhny - which did most to arrest MVD's progress in a 4-3 thriller.

Spartak began the week with a thrilling 4-3 overtime win against league leaders SKA St. Petersburg, before going down 6-4 to Dinamo Riga and recovering to win 5-2 at Dinamo Minsk.

The pick of this week's games is Friday's derby clash between Spartak and CSKA at Sokolniki (7:30 pm). CSKA also host Traktor (Sun. 5 pm).

Euro champions - once again

Bandy: Dinamo Moscow retained the European Cup, beating Swedish champions Vasteras 6-1 on aggregate. After a midweek 2-0 win in Sweden, they secured the trophy with an impressive 4-1 win on their own Krylatskoye ice, thanks to goals from Alexander Tykavin, Yevgeny Ivanushkin, Mikhail Sveshnikov and Rinat Shamsutov.