体坛英语新闻：Zenit miss out title despite final win

ST. PETERSBURG, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia 's only representative in the knockout phase of this year's UEFA Champions League, missed out on the 2013-14 Russian Premier League title despite a 4-1 away win over Kuban Krasnodar on Thursday.

Goals to Axel Witsel, Salomon Rondon, Oleg Shatov and Hulk were not enough to push Zenit ahead of arch rivals CSKA, who hung on for a 1-0 win over third-placed Lokomotiv in a high-stakes Moscow derby.

The win leaves CSKA with 64 points from 30 matches, while Zenit and Lokomotiv finish with 63 and 59 points respectively.

The Russian Premier League title race has been overshadowed in recent days by the fallout from a pitch invasion by Zenit fans angry at their club's poor Round 29 showing against Dinamo Moscow. After trailing 4-2 when the match was abandoned in the 87th minute, the Russian Football Union awarded a 3-0 technical victory to Dinamo, leaving Zenit to pray for a final-round CSKA slip-up.

CSKA, however, clung on to earn the crown with nine wins in the last ten games of the season, edging past Zenit and Lokomotiv, who had shared lead for much of the season.