Brest climbed to third in Ligue 1 on Sunday with a 2-0 home victory over Montpellier to continue their surprise push for European football.
Hugo Magnetti opened the scoring just after halftime in Brittany and substitute Jeremy Le Douaron struck in stoppage time to seal a sixth win in seven games for Eric Roy's side.
They moved above Monaco and to within a point of Nice after both those sides lost on Saturday, and sit in an automatic Champions League qualification spot.
"We're going through a good patch, we have to make the most of it. We know in football things happen very quickly, one way or another," said Roy, the one-time Sunderland midfielder.
Brest are six points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who can extend their advantage later on Sunday away to last season's runners-up Lens.
Lille eased to a 3-0 win over Lorient with goals from Jonathan David, Remy Cabella and Edon Zhegrova. Clermont's 2-1 victory at Nantes pushed Lorient to the foot of the table.
Toulouse picked up only their third win of the season after beating Metz 1-0, leaving Lyon in the relegation play-off spot after they lost 3-1 at Le Havre.
Gautier Lloris, the brother of former France goalkeeper Hugo, put Le Havre ahead with Emmanuel Sabbi and Christopher Operi striking either side of a goal from Alexandre Lacazette.
Lyon had Jake O'Brien sent off in the first half and finished with nine men as Duje Caleta-Car also saw red, their mini-revival abruptly halted after finishing 2023 with three wins in a row.
TABLE (PLAYED, WON, DRAWN, LOST, GOALS FOR, GOALS AGAINST, POINTS):
Paris SG 17 12 4 1 42 14 40
Nice 18 10 5 3 19 11 35
Brest 18 10 4 4 27 15 34
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