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Saint-Etienne secured their first win of the season on Saturday, as Frédéric Piquionne scored twice in the first half to kill off the Metz challenge.
Summer signing Sébastien Mazure was left on the bench once more, but Coach Elie Baup will have felt that decision was justified as Piquionne, Frédéric Mendy and Pascal Feindouno caused all sorts of problems for the Metz defence right from the start.
Piquionne sent a header wide from Mendy’s cross on five minutes, then seconds later shot gently at Grégory Wimbée when well placed on the left side of the box.
The home side logically opened the scoring on 26 minutes, and it was no surprise that the goal came from their livewire striker Piquionne. Fousseiny Diawara crossed from the right, and the former Rennes hitman sent a beautiful header back across goal, over Wimbée and inside the right-hand post.
Some 28,000 fans packed inside ‘Le Caudron’ went wild and they were soon on their feet again when Les Verts doubled the mark.
Metz’s Ludovic Obraniak was unlucky to see his shot bounce back out off Jérémy Janot’s post, but Saint-Etienne immediately broke upfield, Feindouno romped down the left and centred for Piquionne, and he passed the ball into the net with a right-foot volley.
The second goal seemed to break Metz's spirits and they never looked capable of mounting a comeback in the second half. The three points take Les Verts' total up to five this season, while Metz are in trouble with just one point from three matches.
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