Zvezda complete Russian title hat-trick

Zvezda-2005 clinched their third Russian Women's Premier League title in succession with a 1-0 victory at ShVSM-Izmaylovo Moskva, while WFC Rossiyanka will again be joining them in the UEFA Women's Champions League next season.

Zinchenko winner
The Perm side needed only a point in their penultimate fixture to move out of range of Rossiyanka and Nataliya Zinchenko's goal on the half-hour was enough for victory. Rossiyanka, meanwhile, cannot be caught in second regardless of their own result against ShVSM-Izmaylovo on 28 October, having also beaten Zvezda to win the Russian Women's Cup.

European campaigns
Both Zvezda and Rossiyanka will complete their 2009 fixtures with UEFA Women's Champions League Round of 16 outings on 4 and 11 November. Last season's UEFA Women's Cup runners-up Zvezda meet Røa IL – who will retain the Norwegian title with a point at home to Stabæk IF on 31 October – and Rossiyanka take on Umeå IK.

Zvezda goal
Stanislav Kharitonov, the Zvezda sporting director who took over as caretaker coach when Aleksandr Grigoryan resigned in May, told uefa.com: "Our goal in the Champions League is to achieve at least the same as we did last season, when we went through to the final. We tried to play the same football as last season in this campaign and didn't change much. That gave us the same result – we won the league again but also lost the cup final."

Røa challenge
As for the Røa tie, he added: "Last season we beat them 3-1, but the game was a hard one. We couldn't play our strongest lineup, yet there's no doubt that Norwegian clubs are of a very high standard. We'll do all we can to go through to the next stage."