Lorient down St Etienne to climb to fourth

* Lorient up to fourth with 2-0 win at St Etienne

* Brittany side two points off new leaders Auxerre

(updates after late action)

PARIS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Lorient climbed to fourth in Ligue 1 on Sunday by scoring two early goals to win 2-0 win at strugglers St Etienne.

The Brittany side opened the scoring with a superb free kick from forward Marama Vahirua on four minutes and doubled the advantage 12 minutes later through Argentine defender Franco Sebastian Sosa.

Lorient moved on to 24 points from 13 games, two points behind surprise leaders Auxerre who defeated Monaco 2-0 on Saturday.

“To see my team play tonight was a delight,” Lorient coach Christian Gourcuff said after a convincing performance from a team with limited means and no big name.

“We’re not that ambitious but we’re not fixing ourselves any limits either,” he added.

Champions Girondins Bordeaux and Olympique Lyon, who were in action on Saturday, lie second and third respectively, both a point adrift. Bordeaux lost 1-0 at home to Valenciennes and Lyon were held to a 1-1 draw at bottom club Grenoble.

Mid-table Nice beat Toulouse 1-0 courtesy of a second-half penalty by forward Loic Remy on Sunday and Montpellier then beat Lille 2-0 thanks to two goals by Colombian striker Victor Hugo Montano to move up to fifth.

(Writing by Patrick Vignal, editing by Justin Palmer)

((patrick.vignal@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 4949 5370; RM: patrick.vignal.reuters.com@reuters.net; For the Reuters sports blog Left Field go to http://blogs.reuters.com/sport))

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