Monaco 2 - 0 Metz : Monaco ease past Metz

Monaco cruised to a comfortable 2-0 win over Metz at the Stade Louis II to move up to third in Ligue 1 and take pole position in the race for the final Champions League place.

Bernardo Silva opened the scoring for the principality on the stroke of half-time and Valere Germain wrapped up the victory two minutes from time.

Leonardo Jardim's charges now go into their last game of the season at Lorient on 68 points - two above Marseille and St Etienne, who are both locked on 66.

Les Rouges et Blancs took charge from the off, with already-relegated Metz offering little resistance. In fact, if it was not for Metz keeper David Oberhauser the margin could have been even worse.

He showed great reflexes to get down low and deny Fabinho's low rifled effort in the 19th minute after good work from Anthony Martial on the left flank, before he was lucky to watch Martial's shot hit the side-netting in the 25th minute under pressure.

Just before the half-hour mark former Chelsea forward Florent Malouda showed there were some signs of life in the visitors as he brought the ball down well and crossed in for Romain Metanire, who finally worked Monaco custodian Danijel Subasic.

But the inevitable finally happened just before the interval as good interplay from Silva, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco and Martial eventually led to Silva slotting home from close range to open the scoring.

Despite Monaco's dominance for long periods in the first half, the only reason they were able to keep the lead and their clean sheet on the hour mark was because of superb defending from Ricardo Carvalho.

The former Chelsea man showed his considerable experience as he put himself on the line to deny Janis Ikaunieks after the Latvian skipped through the rest of Monaco's backline and also breezed past Subasic but came unstuck thanks to the alert Portuguese defender.

Germain put the result beyond doubt in the closing moments, latching onto a long ball from Silva on the left and coolly firing low past Oberhauser after finding himself unmarked on the penalty spot.