Monaco brush aside Toulouse to move clear in second spot

Monaco moved three points clear in second place in Ligue 1 thanks to a convincing 4-0 win against Toulouse.Goals from Bernardo Silva, Fabio Coentrao, Guido Carrillo and Helder Costa extended Monaco's current unbeaten league run to nine games and moved Leonardo Jardim's side clear of third-placed Nice, who won on Saturday.Toulouse could have made things interesting had they managed to convert the penalty they won in the 39th minute when 2-0 down, but Wissam Ben Yedder was denied by Danijel Subasic.Monaco also survived a scare in the sixth minute when Somalia's cross hit the crossbar, but there only looked like being one winner once the home side took the lead through Silva in the 27th minute.Silva got on the end of Lacina Traore's pass and guided his shot beyond Alban Lafont to open the scoring.Monaco doubled their lead eight minutes later when Coentrao poked home the rebound after Carrillo's effort had come back off the bar.Toulouse did have an opportunity to haul themselves back into the match before the interval when Ricardo Carvalho handled inside the area but Ben Yedder saw his spot-kick well saved by Subasic and Monaco's two-goal lead remained at the break.The second half did not quite live up to the first and Monaco had to wait until the 70th minute to make sure of the points.Portuguese duo Moutinho and Silva combined well and the latter's ball across the box found Carrillo at the back post to make it 3-0.Toulouse battled on but Subasic made another decent save to deny Martin Braithwaite before Adrien Regattin found the crossbar with an effort in the final 10 minutes as the visitors sought a consolation.And there was still time for Monaco to add a fourth when Moutinho's free-kick found its way for an unmarked Helder Costa to score from close range.