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Dundee United
turned a huge Belgian crowd into a booing, jeering mob here in the
Stade Sclessin last night. And those jeers are surely a prelude
to the Taysiders reaching the european Cup quarter finals at the
first attempt. The
Scottish champions gave a display full of polish and experience
and could so easily have taken victory out of agame in which they
scarcely suffered any discomfort.
Standard, a
side full of international stars assembled from different countries,
rarely made genuine chances. In fact it was 41 minutes before United
were under seroius pressure. But when it mattered, skipper Paul
Hegarty was once again the goal line hero, clearing the ball after
Grundel's shot had beaten Hamish McAlpine. Again in the second half
a Grundel shot was beat the keeper and went inches wide. But United,
so well organised after years in Europe, were miserly when it came
to presenting openings.
Hegarty and
Dave Narey were superb at the back and the strong tackling of John
Holt and Derek Stark kept it tight in midfield. horst Hrubesch,
brought back in a bid to boost Standard form, looked unfit and posed
no threat before being stretchered off after trying to reach a through
ball in 69 minutes. United also mastered the offside trap, played
to perfection by the nstional side - and made Standard look distinctly
uncomfortable. united started to make openings as early as the 12th
minute, when Ralph Milne played a delicate curling cross to the
back post where Davie Dodds knocked it just wide.
A superb Holt
tackle then set Milne away on the right and his lob hit the top
of the bar. even in the second half, as Standard became more and
more desperate United had chances. A Bannon cross was missed by
Preud' homme in 55 minutes but unluckily for united the ball fell
on the wrong side of Milne right in front of goal.
Standard
Liege: Preud'Homme,
Jelikic, Wintacq, Poel, Meeuws, Vandermissen, Tahamata, Plessers,
Hrubesch, Daerden, Grundel Substitutes: Aussems, Bodart,
Hellers, Delbrouck, Delangre
Dundee
United:
McAlpine, Kirkwood, Stark, Gough, Hegarty, Narey, Bannon, Milne,
Malpas, Holt, Dodds Substitutes: Clark, Reilly, McGinnis,
Phillip, Gardiner
Ref:
Unknown
Attendance:
30,000
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