Saint-Etienne 3 : 0 Evian Thonon Gaillard - Nothing can stop St Etienne

Posted Monday, December 22, 2014 by PA

St Etienne moved to within five points of the Ligue 1 summit after cruising to a 3-0 victory against Evian to end 2014 in fine style.

Fourth-placed St Etienne were 1-0 ahead in the second minute when Max Gradel slotted home, before Ricky van Wolfswinkel doubled their advantage after 20 minutes to put the hosts firmly in control.

Romain Hamouma then added a superb third shortly after the hour mark to cap off a convincing display by Christophe Galtier's side, who are now unbeaten in 10 league games.

The result moved Les Verts on to 36 points from their 19 matches - level with third-placed Lyon, who face a tricky away game at Bordeaux later on Sunday night.

Defeat saw Evian replace Metz in the relegation zone and Pascal Dupraz's side have now lost seven of their nine away league matches this season.

St Etienne have only lost once at home this season and they got off to the best possible start when Gradel netted in the second minute to get the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard well and truly rocking.

With Evian napping from the kick-off, the Ivory Coast forward met Hamouma's cut-back pass to calmly slot past goalkeeper Benjamin Leroy to score his fourth league goal of the season.

Van Wolfswinkel notched his fifth league goal of the campaign in the 20th minute when Hamouma turned provider again and the Holland international made no mistake with a first-time finish as St Etienne cruised to half-time with a two-goal advantage.

Evian started the second half considerably better than they did the first and were perhaps unfortunate not to get back into the match when Aldo Angoula and Milos Ninkovic had clear-cut chances to score.

But St Etienne came through unscathed and the second half was 20 minutes old when Hamouma joined fellow forwards Gradel and Van Wolfswinkel on the scoresheet.

The winger capped off a fantastic individual display by breaking into the Evian area before dispatching a stunning finish beyond Leroy.

The victory means St Etienne finish the year on a high and after the two-week winter break they host Nancy in the Coupe de France on January 4, while Evian will seek to make amends for this limp display away at minnows AC Bobigny a day earlier.