"Zenit" secures the title of Russian champions © EuroFootball.com

On Sunday, Saint Petersburg's "Zenit" crushed "Rostov" club with a score of 5-0 and secured the title of champions two rounds before the end of the Russian championship.

The team supported by the Russian energy giant "Gazprom," coached by Italian Luciano Spalletti, also won the country's cup in May of this year.

"Zenit" could have secured the title with a victory against Moscow's CSKA, but suffered a 1-3 defeat on Wednesday.

"We felt a lot of pressure to win as a team," said Spalletti. "It's been like this for the past four months when we had a big lead over other clubs and people thought we would become champions any day.

"But nobody gave us points for free. We had to fight in every match, so I especially want to thank the players, our director Aleksei Miller, the fans, and the wonderful city."

"Zenit" with 66 points convincingly leads the second-placed CSKA (58). Rubin Kazan is in third place (56), while Moscow's Spartak is in fourth (48).