Dundee United turned the torrid Olympic Stadium into a torture chamber yesterday as they crashed out of the European Cup. their dreams ended in desperate disappointment because they failed to rise to the big occasion. And it would be churlish to deny that the millionaires of Roma deserve to be in the final against Liverpool back in their own stadium on May 30th. United mustered every ounce of determination but were frustated early in the game by their own nervous tension. and later when they hit an improved patch in the second half they were 3-0 down and all had been lost.

It all ended in bedlam with Roma players chasing United manager Jim McLean and waving angrily at him over some of the things he was alleged to have said after his team won 2-0 at Tannadice in the first leg. Reaching this stage of Europe's major club competition was an excellent feat by Untied, hut all the realities and the talents that big money can buy struck home in this all-or-nothing 90 minutes. The major disappointment was a goal miss by Ralph Milne when the score was 0-0. It was a super chance to douse the hopes of Roma and their holiday-making legions. Eamonn Bannon crossed the ball after beating right-back. Nappi. Davie Dodds missed it and it swirled towards Milne as he raced in from the right. He could have steadied himself but instead hit the ball first time and it spiralled over the bar.

Ironically, the first crushing blow for United came only two minutes after Milne's miss. Italian World Cup player Bruno Conti placed a corner kick expertly for the middle-of Hamish McAlpine's goal. The United keeper surprisingly didn't come out to meet the ball and Roberto Pruzzo leaped to head it into goal. French referee Michel Vautrot had earlier disallowed a goal by Conti because of a foul by Pruzzo immediately before the winger gathered the ball United will be angry at some refereeing inconsistencies such as the booking of Maurice Malpas after only three minutes However, Vautrot did nothing which changed the course of the game and twice in the second half he reprimanded the United bench for shouting. This brought whoops of glee from the Roma supporters who had posted notices which made it clear chat McLean was not their No I hero WHEN PRUZZO SCORED A SECOND GOAL IN 38 MINUTES EVEN HE COULDNT BELIEV E HIS GOOD LUCK.

He got the ball from Di Bartolomei and backing hard on Richard Gough, chested the ball down swivelled and shot it past McAlpine. United always seemed to be toiling, whereas Roma had the magic of Roberto Falcao, unfit but still an outstanding player. The 58th minute penalty illustrated United's problems clearly. The ball was cleared from the Italian goal area after a free kick In two passes it reached Cerezo and he squared it to Pruzzo, McAlpine raced out and threw himself at Pruzzo's feet and pulled him down. He could have done nothing else as the Roma striker was all on his own.

Di Banolornei took the penalty and scored. In the second half, Jim McLean played John Holt in place of Derek Stark and this brought about an improvement-but not enough United must be kicking themselves for not settling quicker after the disallowed goal They return to the reality of Scottish club soccer in front of a small crowd at Motherwell on Saturday. And they will be thinking still about what might have happened had Milne hit the bullseye ai the critical tune.

AS Roma: Tancredi, Nappi, Rigetti, NelaDi Bartolomei, Maldera, Conti, Cerezo, Pruzzo, Falcao, Grazziani Substitutes: Malgioglio, Chierico, Oddi, Giannini, Vincenzi

Dundee United: McAlpine, Stark, Malpas, Gough, Hegarty, Narey, Bannon, Milne, Kirkwood, Sturrock, Dodds Substitutes: Holt, Reilly, Clark, McGinnis, Gardiner.

Ref: M. Vautrot (France)

Attendance: 68,060