Four first-half goals were enough to give Saint-Etienne a comfortable 4-0 win over Nancy at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Friday night.

Brandao opened the scoring after nine minutes when he headed in Jonathan Brison's cross before Romain Hamouma took advantage of some slack Nancy defending to nod in a second 10 minutes later.

A third header made it 3-0 almost instantly as Brandao was on hand to convert following good work from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Aubameyang then capped an utterly dominant display from the home side midway through the half when he confidently slotted in.

The visitors' night got worse in the 68th minute as Simon Zenke was shown a straight red card for his reckless challenge on Faouzi Ghoulam.

The victory has moved Saint-Etienne up to seventh in the Ligue 1 table, while Nancy remain two points adrift of safety in 19th.