Saint-Etienne have missed the chance to move within a point of third-placed Lille in the Ligue 1 table after going down 2-0 away to Bordeaux.
Lille's 1-1 draw with Rennes on Friday evening extended an invitation to Christophe Galtier's men to keep the pressure on les Dogues in the race for Champions League qualification.
However, Galtier's team failed to find the win as goals from Abdou Traore and Carlos Henrique consigned the visitors to defeat.
Francis Gillot's men opened the scoring five minutes shy of the interval when Traore smashed home from close range to break a two-and-a-half-year goal drought.
The hosts doubled their advantage six minutes into the second half, with Henrique sweeping home from close range after Nicolas Maurice-Belay's effort had rebounded off the post.
Gregory Sertic came within inches of adding to his team's two-goal lead by curling a free kick narrowly past the post on the hour mark.
Saint-Etienne could have set up a nervy final few minutes for Bordeaux as Brandao saw his header expertly saved by Cedric Carrasso in the closing stages of normal time, but the home team held out for a clean sheet.
