Evian 3 Metz 0

Evian moved out of the danger zone as they claimed their third straight win with a comfortable 3-0 Ligue 1 victory over Metz at the Parc des Sports on Saturday night.

Following an uneventful first half, Cheick Doukoure put through his own net to hand the hosts the lead after the break before Daniel Wass doubled their advantage with a penalty and Gianni Bruno completed the scoring with 10 minutes to go.

The victory moves Pascal Dupraz's side out of the relegation zone and up four places into 15th while it ended Metz's three-match winning run as they dropped down a spot into sixth.

Albert Cartier's visitors started well and could have taken an early lead after Sergey Krivets found Juan Falcon, who dribbled past Jonathan Mensah and fired from the edge of the box, but his effort sailed inches wide of the left post.

Another chance from Metz arrived just after the half-hour mark as Falcon picked up a long ball from Jeremy Choplin this time but his header was pushed aside by Evian goalkeeper Jesper Hansen. Florent Malouda picked up the ball on the rebound on the edge of the box, but Hansen again held them out as they searched for an opener.

Six minutes before the break Falcon was again denied by Hansen, who kept out his close-range effort to keep the scores level.

After a slow start to the second half, Evian's Wass was unfortunate not to take the lead as his free-kick from just outside the 18-yard box curled marginally over the crossbar.

But just after the hour mark, the hosts were able to take the lead with their second real chance of note.

Youssouf Sabaly combined well with Cedric Barbosa and the latter eventually took his chance with a powerful shot towards the Metz goal that Doukoure helped go inside.

Wass doubled the score with a well-taken penalty after Metz stopper Anthony Mfa brought down Modou Sougou. Wass fired the ball low to the left as Mfa dived to the right to make it 2-0.

And with 10 minutes of the match remaining, Bruno collected an excellent ball from Sougou and dribbled past Choplin before beating Mfa from close range to seal the three points.