PARIS (AFP) - Lyon warmed up for their Champions League return with Manchester United and bolstered their quest for a seventh straight league title on Saturday with a 1-0 away win over Lille before a record first division crowd at the Stade de France.

Brazilian striker Fred smacked a low drive past Lille keeper Tony Sylva on the half hour to take the champions onto 55 points from 27 games - six ahead of Bordeaux, who tackle Paris St Germain on Sunday.

Lyon ended a ragged stretch of away form in securing their first success on their travels since November 24.

Coach Alain Perrin afterwards had to defuse talk of tension between strike star Karim Benzema and teammate Hatem Ben Arfa.

Benzema walked straight past his colleague when the latter replaced him on the hour mark.

"They aren't the greatest of friends - it's a personal thing," admitted Perrin.

"It's nothing to do with Hatem," countered Benzema, who scored a fine goal in the home leg against United, insisting he was just irritated at being asked to play to the left of his preferred central role.

"I don't like this position," said the 20-year-old.

Marseille kept up their push for a Champions League spot next season in moving fourth with a 2-1 home win over Auxerre, former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse claiming the crucial second for his tenth league goal of the campaign.

Saturday saw a drought of goals with third-placed Nancy suffering from the shortage most as they could only draw 0-0 at Lorient to move onto 45 points - still four adrift of Bordeaux.

Marseille now have 42 having leapfrogged a Le Mans side who went down 1-0 at home to Strasbourg to complete a miserable week after a league cup semi-final exit.

Lens, who made it through at their expense to face PSG in the March 29 final, drew 1-1 at home to Toulouse which temporarily pushed the Parisians into the bottom four.

Monaco could only eke out a scoreless home draw with Valenciennes while Metz beat Caen for only their third win of the season although they are 13 points adrift at the bottom.

As Marseille look to return to Europe's premier club competition, which they remain the only French side to win, Lyon keeper Gregory Coupet warned Manchester United that their last 16 tie is far from over ahead of Tuesday's Old Trafford return.

"They'll be the favourites on their own patch. But we'll go there with a view to containing them," said Coupet, glad for a clean sheet against Lille after his recent return from injury.