Caen 4 : 1 Stade Reims - Belief for basement boys

Basement boys Caen proved they are capable of competing in Ligue 1 by snapping an eight-game winless streak with a 4-1 home victory over Reims.

The promoted club, whose previous win came back in October, have propped up the table for much of the season, but their confident thumping of Reims leaves them only two points of safety.

Alaeddine Yahia and Sloan Privat caught the visitors cold with goals in the first eight minutes and, after Gaetan Charbonnier responded with a penalty, Yahia added Caen's third.

The second half remained tense until Bengali-Fode Koita struck a fourth goal from the spot and suddenly survival appeared to be a real possibility for Patrice Garande's men once again.

Yahia opened the scoring inside only three minutes as he headed Julien Feret's free-kick home and, five minutes later, Privat fooled Johny Placide with a dummied shot from six yards out to make it 2-0.

In the 26th minute Charbonnier sent Remy Vercoutre diving to his right while he shot to the left after Yahia had fouled David Ngog in the Caen box.

The two-goal lead was soon re-established by Yahia, who converted his second with a tap-in after Privat's attempt to turn Lenny Nangis' free-kick into the net was blocked.

Reims went close to scoring again through both Gregory Bourillon and Ngog after the break, but it was Koita who had the final say in the match.

After Mickael Tacalfred conceded a penalty with a handball, former Montpellier striker Koita blasted the ball into the bottom corner with Placide just about getting fingertips to the powerful spot-kick.