Zenit St. Petersburg’s €40 million signing Hulk scored his first goal for the Russian champions Saturday as they rescued a 2-2 draw away to Krylya Sovetov after going 2-0 down.
Zenit rise to third in the Russian Premier League with the point from the draw and are now four points behind leaders CSKA Moscow, while Krylya stay 11th.
The draw was the first time Zenit had avoided defeat in the three games Hulk had played since debuting last week following his transfer from Porto.
“I think the guys did great,” Krylya coach Andrei Kobelev said in televised comments. “Of course you always want more, to win.”
The Brazilian sparked Zenit’s comeback with a spectacular goal on 65 minutes, cutting in from the right flank and smashing the ball between two defenders and in off the crossbar.
Midfielder Roman Shirokov equalized 13 minutes later with a bouncing header off Bruno Alves’ cross, shortly after he had missed two good chances.
Krylya had seen defender Alexander Epureanu sent off for a second bookable offense on 75 minutes but Zenit proved unable to use their man advantage to eke out a win late on despite sending a barrage of shots at Sergei Veremko’s goal.
Earlier, former Zenit and Blackpool striker Sergei Kornilenko put Krylya ahead on 10 minutes with a low shot from outside the area.
Paraguay striker Luis Caballero, who had provided the assist for the opener, then made it 2-0 when he took advantage of Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev’s slow reactions to poke the ball into the net from two yards on 26 minutes.
The result was the third time in three games Sunday that teams had come back from behind to get a positive result after CSKA beat FC Volga 3-2 and Dynamo Moscow defeated Amkar Perm by the same score.
On Friday, FC Krasnodar thrashed Mordovia Saransk 6-1 in the weekend’s opening fixture.
Saturday also sees Terek play Lokomotiv Moscow in the day’s final fixture.
On Sunday, Spartak Moscow face FC Rostov and Rubin Kazan play FC Kuban, before Monday’s Caucasus derby between Alania Vladikavkaz and Anzhi ends the round of games.
