Saint Etienne, France – Four different scorers helped St. Etienne cruise to a 4-1 victory over Montpellier at the Stade Geoffroy- Guichard on Saturday, sending the home side up to fourth place in France's top flight.
Les Verts jumped out to a three-goal lead with two goals coming before the break.
Brandao opened the scoring for St. Etienne in the 13th minute before Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang bagged his team-leading 11th goal of the season.
Yohan Mollo added to St. Etienne's lead in the 48th, but his strike was canceled out Remy Cabella a minute later.
Christopher Galtier's men still managed to restore their three-goal advantage as Mathieu Bodmer, on loan from PSG, struck with 16 minutes to go to wrap up the affair.
Montpellier remains on 35 points, dropping its second league match in its last four outings.
St. Etienne's fourth successive Ligue 1 win lifts the club to 40 points on the season, leaving it 11 points back of first-place PSG.
The club moves ahead of Bordeaux and Nice in the French table after the two sides dropped points on Saturday.
Bordeaux slips to sixth place following its 1-0 loss at Ajaccio, while Nice needed a late goal from Valentine Eysseric to get a 1-1 draw with Lorient and improve to 39 points to retain fifth place.
Also on Saturday, Reims came back from a one-goal deficit to take all three points as Floyd Ayite and Odair Fortes scored in the club's 2-1 defeat of Nancy, Mathieu Dossevi and Rudy Mater provided the goals in Valenciennes' 2-1 win over Brest and Troyes was held to a 0-0 home draw by Sochaux.
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