Super St Etienne strike

A second-half blitz saw St Etienne romp to a 4-0 win over Reims and maintain their challenge for European football next season.

A second-half goal blitz saw St Etienne romp to a 4-0 win over Reims and maintain their challenge for European football next season. Moustapha Bayal Sall got the scoring under way after 62 minutes before two goals in as many minutes from Loic Perrin put the match beyond their opponents. Mevlut Erdinc then added gloss to the scoreline with his late strike to make it back-to-back wins for St Etienne in Ligue 1.There was little sign of the excitement to come as the crowd sat through a dismal opening 45 minutes at the Stade Geoffrey Guichard. Chances were few and far between for both teams, with Brandao briefly threatening after 24 minutes with a powerful volley which flew over the bar. Odair Fortes then had Reims' best chance of the half on the 30-minute mark, smashing a low drive which brought an excellent save out of Stephane Ruffier. But it was St Etienne who came out firing on all cylinders after the interval and Sall broke the deadlock 17 minutes into the half, heading home a corner from Romain Hamouma. The home side were two goals to the good after 76 minutes thanks to Perrin, who benefited from a curling free-kick from team-mate Yohan Mollo to find the target with a diving header. And the defender was on the mark again just two minutes later with another accurate header on the rebound after visiting goalkeeper Kossi Agassa had done a poor job of clearing a corner from Hamouma. There was no way back for Reims at this point and Hamouma capped an excellent performance three minutes from time with his third assist of the afternoon, laying the ball off for Erdinc to fire home right-footed.