PARIS, France (AFP) — Monaco moved back to second spot in Ligue One and just two points behind Paris Saint-Germain with a 2-0 win over Rennes at their Louis II stadium yesterday.

Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez gave the perfect answer to recent criticism from his coach Claudio Ranieri with a brilliant 19th-minute free-kick before Anthony Martial guaranteed a ninth win in 15 matches just before half-time.

The win lifts Monaco two points in front of Lille who are in action later on Saturday with a trip to third from bottom Valenciennes.

The team were also playing without injured top scorer Radamel Falcao as the Colombian struggles with a thigh problem.

PSG are not in action until Sunday when they host Lyon at the Parc des Princes.

“I’m very happy with the win and that my goal helped Monaco,” Rodriguez told Canal Plus tv.

“I’ve been working a lot on my free-kicks in training and thanks to God, I scored one today,” he added.

Earlier yesterday, Saint-Etienne took temporary possession of fifth spot with a 4-0 rout of Reims at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium.

Mustapha Bayal Sall scored the first of four goals in 26 second half minutes when he broke a 0-0 deadlock to set the home side on their way.

Captain and defender Loic Perrin then scored twice in quick succession with Saint-Etienne’s second goal on 76 minutes and their third 120 seconds later.

Frenchman Fabien Lemoine then capped a fine afternoon’s work with the final strike with two minutes remaining.

The victory follows their controversial 1-0 win at Nice last Sunday which was marred by crowd violence and led to a ban on their away supporters until the end of the calendar year.