Monaco's Ligue 1 title hopes have suffered a blow after they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Saint-Etienne at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

Valere Germain had an early sight of goal for the visitors, but he dragged a strike from the edge of the box wide of the post.

The home side came close soon after when Fabian Lemoine fired in a low volley that narrowly missed the target.

In the 18th minute Saint-Etienne took the lead through Lemoine, who latched on to a loose ball outside the box, before hammering a powerful strike past Danijel Subasic and into the top corner.

Geoffrey Kondogbia came close to equalising for the visitors but Stephane Ruffier kept out his strike, before Nicolas Isimat-Mirin saw an effort cleared off the line.

Lemoine almost grabbed a second at the end of the half after being set up by Brandao, but Subasic pushed his low strike wide of the post.

The home side continued to threaten in the second half and Benoit Tremoulinas lashed a strike wide after a strong run through the midfield.

Saint-Etienne were looking the more likely to score the next goal, and they doubled their lead in the 66th minute.

Romain Hamouma was given time and space to shoot, and his low effort was somehow allowed to creep under the body of Subasic and find back of the net.

Monaco looked for a way back into the game but struggled to create any clear goalscoring chances, as Saint-Etienne held on to the win and moved up to third in the table.