Radamel Falcao helps five-star Monaco cruise past Bastia

Free-scoring Monaco moved back to the top of Ligue 1 with an emphatic 5-0 win over lowly Bastia.

The hosts' evening got off to the perfect start when, with just 10 minutes on the clock, Kylian Mbappe pounced after Jean-Louis Leca had done superbly to keep out Radamel Falcao's initial header.

It could have been a different story for the visitors, though, had Gael Danic's decent effort nestled just inside the top corner a few minutes earlier.

Monaco thought they had doubled their first-half tally on 38 minutes when Kamil Glik successfully got on the end of Thomas Lemar's free-kick but the linesman's flag denied the Polish defender.

That disappointment turned to elation around the hour mark, though, when Falcao's superb ball picked out Lemar at the back post to double the principality side's lead.

And the points were all but wrapped up a couple of minutes later when Falcao got in on the act, latching on to Mbappe's perfectly-weighted pass before finishing beyond Leca with the aid of the crossbar.

But the Colombian had not finished there, making it 4-0 after sending a clinical first-time finish into the bottom corner from Lemar's pinpoint delivery.

Lemar's crosses were causing the Bastia defence all kinds of problems and it was another perfectly-timed delivery that set up a fifth for Monaco, Guido Carrillo converting with a close-range header.