Chelsea have a 2-1 half-time lead over Rubin Kazin in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Fernando Torres and Victor Moses put the home side in control before a late penalty from Natcho gave the visitors an all-important away goal.
The hosts took the lead with 16 minutes on the clock as Torres latched onto David Luiz's searching pass before bundling the ball home.
Rubin's first meaningful effort came minutes later, but Natcho's speculative drive was easily held by Petr Cech.
Chelsea doubled their tally in the 32nd minute when Moses smashed home the rebound after Sergey Ryzhikov had failed to deal with his initial effort.
However, Rubin grabbed an away goal four minutes before the break when Natcho fired in from the penalty spot following a handball from John Terry.