BY MATT DICKINSON ( The Times )

ON A night of driving Scandinavian winds, the real hurricane turned out to be Manchester United's rampant attack, which dismantled poor Brondby with a display of fearsome ruthlessness. The trail of devastation in Copenhagen included the wrecked remains of a dishevelled Danish defence.

Six goals were rich and proper reward for waves of fast, incisive attacks, and yet this was not even United at their most irresistible. Alex Ferguson, the United manager, thought his side had played better in drawing with Bayern Munich and it was indeed hard to say that any particular player truly caught the eye against such dispirited opponents.

Still, after a scoreline that was a record for an away team in the short history of the Champions' League, it was not a night for quibbling and United's joy was further improved by the news from Germany that Bayern Munich had beaten Barcelona 1-0 in the other match in group D.

It meant that United leapt to the top of the section and, assuming that they dismiss Brondby in the return at Old Trafford in a fortnight, they will then venture to the Nou Camp brimful of optimism.

"It has been a great night for us," Ferguson said. "I fancied Bayern to win and that result has opened up the group for us. It is still difficult, because if Barcelona beat us over there, we could still go out. But we have got the show on the road now."

Ferguson had seemed in remarkably good spirits even before the game, pausing to stop in the bowels of the Parken Stadium to chat merrily to anyone with a spare minute. The reason for his rare public show of optimism was soon very evident. Within 90 seconds, in fact, which was all the time it took for the Danish champions to prove that their defence was as suspect as the United camp had believed it to be.

Well as United played, it took a remarkable amount of complicity from the Brondby rearguard to produce such a staggering result, although the English team's finishing was still a joy to behold.

With the Danes believed to be at their weakest on the left-hand side of defence, Ferguson had opted to move Giggs's pace and devilment to the right flank. It was a sensible policy and one that was richly rewarded.

The versatile Welshman grabbed the first of his goals less than two minutes from the kick-off after a goalkeeping error that dwarfed Peter Schmeichel's blunder against Munich by a considerable distance. Wes Brown, who was making his European debut with great assuredness, crossed into the penalty area, where Krogh should have collected the simplest of catches.

Schmeichel's international understudy appeared to be confused by Rasmussen's dive under the ball, however, and the cross bounced off his chest and straight into the path of Giggs, who needed only to tap it home with his right boot from a couple of yards.

If not completely rampant, United were still dominating proceedings and they should have been further ahead before Giggs's second in the twentieth minute, the winger rising high above his hapless marker, Brian Jensen, to head Blomqvist's hanging cross powerfully past Krogh.

The Brondby goalkeeper had belittled Cole's talents in the build-up to the game, claiming that the striker squanders a handful of opportunities for every goal he scores. Those sentiments, and Krogh himself, looked crass by the 28th minute, when the United striker made his contribution to what was, by then, turning into a rout.

Cole and Yorke launched a two-man assault straight at the heart of the Brondby defence but still had to find their way past three opponents. They managed it with wonderful speed and dexterity, Yorke slipping the ball to his revitalised accomplice, who dashed through the narrowest of gaps before hitting home a measured sidefoot shot from the edge of the area. At that stage, United looked as though they might repeat their 6-0 trouncing of Brondby in a pre-season match, such was the ease with which they were slicing through their defence.

One should have learnt by now, though, that United like to make life complicated and so it came to pass in the 35th minute. A Brondby free kick near the corner of the United penalty area appeared to present no great danger, but Schmeichel's concentration lapsed for a second as he allowed Kim Daugaard's free kick to squirm under him.

It was not a moment the Dane will care to remember, but he could do little about Brondby's second goal in the final seconds, from Ebbe Sand.

By then, Keane had waded in with the fourth goal after exchanging passes with the tireless Yorke, and then the Trinidad and Tobago striker deservedly added his name to the long list of scorers when he headed in a perfect cross from Phil Neville.

It was joyous stuff as United launched wave after wave of attacks that washed over the chaotic Brondby defence. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored with almost his first kick of the game after coming on for Cole, and it seemed that the English side could do no wrong.

Brondby (4-4-2): M Krogh - S Colding, P Nielsen (sub: M Jensen, 30min), K Rasmussen, B Jensen (sub: V Da Silva, 27) - O Bjur, A Ravn, K Daugaard, T Lindrup - B Hansen (sub: R Bagger, 66), E Sand.

Manchester United (4-4-2): P Schmeichel - W Brown, G Neville, J Stam, P Neville - R Giggs (sub: J Cruyff, 60), R Keane, P Scholes, J Blomqvist - A Cole (sub: O G Solskjaer, 60), D Yorke (sub: M Wilson, 64).

Referee: V Melo Pereira (Portugal).