St-Etienne put brakes on Monaco title charge

AS Monaco FC failed to close within two points of leaders Paris Saint-Germain at the top of Ligue 1 as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at AS Saint-Étienne, who are up to third.

Claudio Ranieri's men failed to pile the pressure on Paris ahead of Sunday's Classique, and found themselves behind in the 17th minute courtesy of Fabien Lemoine's unstoppable 25-metre effort which whistled into the top corner. Romain Hamouma's shot slipped beneath Danijel Subašić in the 66th minute to seal the points for Les Verts, who are eight points back from Monaco.

Stade de Reims jumped two places to sixth thanks to a 3-1 home success against Valenciennes FC, Nicolas de Preville, Prince Oniangué and Gaëtan Charbonnier all finding the net. Toulouse FC, meanwhile, defeated OGC Nice 2-0 with Eden Ben Basat and Wissam Ben Yedder hitting the target.

Second-bottom FC Sochaux-Montbéliard boosted their survival hopes with a 2-0 defeat of FC Girondins de Bordeaux, while EA Guingamp moved 13th by defeating Stade Rennais FC by the same scoreline. FC Lorient and SC Bastia drew 1-1 in the day's other game.