Jubilation drowned out the sound of the final whistle as enthusiastic Gambian fans, gathered in the streets, erupted into euphoria at their team's 2-1 victory against crowd favourites Portugal to proceed to the second round of the on-going FIFA U-20 World Championships in Canada.

Fans jumped onto each others' shoulders and hugged and danced to the Gambian beat as the celebrations began.

 "I feel as if we have won the World Cup already," said Lamin Camara a diehard fan.

"We really need this in Gambia. The team has been going through a difficult time, but today that's forgotten, today is a day for Gambia."  It wasn't long before the jubilation spilled out onto the streets bringing Westfield Junction in Serrekunda to a virtual standstill.

Chanting, whistle-blowing and the sounds of foghorns spilled out onto the streets as fans draped in Gambian flags.  There should have been a sign of things to come when hours earlier the normally sober streets of Serrekunda, Bakau, Banjul and other parts on a Sunday morning were buzzing with Gambian fans feeling very much loud and proud.

The Gambian side surprised a significantly changed but favoured Portugal despite playing for the last half hour with 10 men.  It all seemed so unlikely in the opening stages of the match when Congo-born defensive midfielder Feliciano Condesso headed the Iberians ahead past the wildly charging Gambian goalkeeper in the 20th minute.

However, the Baby Scorpions looked consistently dangerous going forward and they evened the match just before the break amid howls of Portuguese displeasure. Ousman Jallow calmly side-footed a penalty past the right-guessing goalkeeper.

Gambia suffered a blow just before the hour mark when Ken Jammeh was sent off for an unruly studs-up challenge on Andre Maques which ended the Portuguese's match and possibly tournament.  But the Baby Scorpions rallied and grabbed the winner through substitute Abdoulie Mansally in the 68th minute when he curled in a free-kick from the right side that missed everyone's head and snuck in at the far post.

With the win, the Gambians take second place in the section and will go on to face Austria, the second-placed side from Group A in the Round of 16.