French Ligue 1: Max-imum points for St Etienne

Max Gradel's second-half strike made it back-to-back Ligue 1 wins for St Etienne as they edged Metz 1-0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

Christophe Galtier's side got back to winning ways at Lorient last weekend and followed that up with a creditable goalless draw away at Inter Milan in the Europa League in midweek.

This contest looked to be heading towards the same scoreline, before Gradel stepped up to finally make Les Verts' superiority count 16 minutes from time.

Victory takes the hosts up to third, while Metz slip to 10th after their winless run was extended to three matches.

The visitors were the first to go close after five minutes, but Bouna Sarr could only fire over from 12 yards before Renaud Cohade saw his shot well saved by Anthony Mfa Mezui after good work from Gradel created the opportunity.

Les Verts continued to dominate and should have opened the scoring after 20 minutes when Gradel escaped the attentions of the Metz defence, but his poor touch allowed Mfa to come off his line and prevent the former Leeds man.

Metz's first real opportunity came their way on the half-hour mark when Sergey Krivets released Yeni Ngbakoto into the area but, from a tight angle, he could only fire into the side-netting of Stephane Ruffier's goal.

With half-time fast approaching one final chance came the hosts way but former Cardiff defender Kevin Theophile-Catherine saw his header end up just millimetres wide of the top corner.

St Etienne threw on Ricky van Wolfswinkel at the interval but it was Metz who came closest to opening the scoring just five minutes after the restart when Krivets' volley from the left angle of the area shaved the outside of Ruffier's post.

Visiting keeper Mfa was called into action once again on the hour mark when he dived to keep out Romain Hamouma's header after Theophile-Catherine picked him out as an opening goal continued to allude both sides.

St Etienne's Hamouma thought he should have had a penalty when he burst into the visiting area before going down under a Romain Metanire challenge but the hosts had the ball in the net soon after.

Van Wolfswinkel got on the end of long Theophile-Catherine ball to head into Gradel's path and the diminutive Ivorian acrobatically steered the ball beyond Mfa to give Les Verts a crucial lead.

Apparently stunned by the opener, Metz struggled to find a way back into the game and, when Guido Milan blazed an effort into the stands in stoppage time any chance of a point went with it for the visitors.