Anderlecht 1 - 4 Leeds United

	Two-goal hero Alan Smith gets away from Yves Vanderhaeghe (BenRadford/Allsport)

Wednesday night's stunning victory in Brussels abandoned their habit of pulling last-minute rabbits out of the hat.

Having already caught AC Milan, Lazio and Anderlecht cold in the latter stages, David O'Leary's side went for the kill last night. Within 38 minutes their reward was a firm grip on a Champions League quarter-final place. They never let go.

England Under 21 star Alan Smith, already a goal hero in Munich and more famously at Lazio, began an extraordinary night in Brussels by side-footing Leeds ahead in the 13th minute with his first goal in 15 matches and nearly three months.

Against all expectations, two further goals in five minutes before half-time stunned the Belgian league leaders and booked Leeds' berth in the last eight to signal yet another glory night in their rollercoaster European campaign.

The second goal arrived courtesy of Mark Viduka. The Australian forward, who had made Smith's opener, rose magnificently to send a towering 35th-minute header looping beyond Zvonko Milojevic in Anderlecht's goal, breaking his own nine-game spell without scoring.

Then the irrepressible Smith crowned a marvellous first half for Leeds with a third goal, engineered by David Batty and Olivier Dacourt, that had O'Leary and the whole bench dancing a jig of delight along the touchline.

Smith' s first goal had silenced the intimidating Belgian crowd to such an extent that the 1,300 travelling fans taunted their rivals by offering to 'sing a song for them'.

It was sweet music to manager O'Leary's ears after the disdain with which Anderlecht had greeted Leeds' 2-1 win at Elland Road a week earlier.

Viduka, having being fed by Smith, intelligently held the ball up until a precise delivery across Milojevic's goal found his young partner racing in for a clinical finish.

Smith, the 20-year-old local hero, has refused to lose heart at forfeiting his Premiership starting place to £12million loan striker Robbie Keane and his performance in the Vanden Stock Stadium was of the calibre that would have alerted new England boss Sven Goran Eriksson.

Viduka' s header from Dominic Matteo's far-post cross could not have been better judged by a player who has determinedly shrugged off the flak he has been taking from a section of Elland Road fans.

Anderlecht, who needed to win to keep alive their own hopes of snatching second place in Group D behind Real Madrid, visibly wilted as their dream began to fade before the break.

When Alin Stoica was offered the chance to pull the Belgians back in with at least a shout, he fired hopelessly wide to the jeers of Leeds' fans behind Nigel Martyn's goal.

Leeds' only black mark as they took an ominous grip on the tie was a third yellow card for right-back Danny Mills - tipped as a surprise call-up in England's squad to face Spain - that will rule him out of the trip to Real Madrid in a fortnight.

Anderlecht's top scorer Tomasz Radzinski fired one chance wide early in the match but, as the drama unfolded, the Belgians found themselves increasingly outplayed on the fortress of a ground where they had won all 17 matches this season, including a Champions League triumph over Manchester United.

Remarkably, the victory could have been even more emphatic. Even before Smith's opener, Eirik Bakke, standing in for suspended midfielder Lee Bowyer, struck a sweet volley that brought the save of the match from Milojevic.

Rio Ferdinand almost scored his first Champions League goal on his second appearance with the 57th-minute volley the £18million defender conjured from an Ian Harte corner only for big Czech striker Jan Koller to block it on the line.

Bart Goor finally had a decent second-half chance to lift Anderlecht, but Martyn pulled off a superb point-blank save.