Ralph Milne led Dundee United gloriously through to the quarter-finals of the European Cup last night at tannadice. The Under-21 star, dropped against Motherwell last Saturday, responded to tnat Kick in the pants by scoring twice in the first half. And then Milne, Umted's top European scorer with 11 goals led the Belgians a merry dance as the Tannadice men proved they were at least one class ahead.

There were n signs of the indifferent home performances which have plagued previous ventures United,-reaching-the-oquaner-finals at the first attempt in their 50th European match, could even afford the luxury of a glaring miss in 12 minutes John Holt won the ball with a powerful challenge in midfield and forced it forward. Suddenly Davie Dodds was completely in the clear but after advancing on 'keeper Preud'homme, he pushed his shot wide. Jim McLean's side simply shrugged off that upset and as the goals eventually flowed .There were chants of "bring on Liverpool" from the ecstatic crowd.

The Dodds miss was forgotten in 26 minutes when Milne got the opener Eamonn Bannon beat his defender at the corner fiag and Milne dived to bead the cross just inside Preud'homme's right-hand post. Two minutes before half-time Milne struck again. He intelligently beat the Belgian offside trap - though Standard disputed that-as he ran on to a Holt cross and calmly lobbed the goalkeeper. Milne almost completed his hat-trick immediately after half-time as, he ran riot. But the third goal the clincher was only delayed until the 51st minute when skipper Paul Hegarty beaded in a Milne corner. The Belgians simply had no answer as United pushed down on them and Dodds got the fourth from Richard Gough's cutback in 69 minutes. Standard came close only once when Hamish McAlpine blocked a Michel Wintacq shot with the score 0-0. Just after that Derek Stark limped off and was replaced by John Reilly. In the end it didn't matter.

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

Standard Liege: Preud'Homme, Jelikic, Wintacq, Poel, Meeuws, Vandermissen, Tahamata, Plessers, Aussems, Daerden, Grundel Substitutes: Bodart, Hellers, Delbrouck, Delangre, Bosman.

Ref: K.H. Tritschler (Germany)

Attendance: 17,000