Victory over the French cockerel prompted a mass cooking of chickens in Dakar, and the Senegalese must have been boiling root vegetables yesterday after Bruno Metsu's side snatched a golden-goal victory over the Swedes to enter the quarter-finals of the World Cup at their first attempt.

If the celebrations on the pitch following Henri Camara's winner were anything to go by, flowering plants may be in danger too. First the entire team bundled on top of each other, then Camara was chaired across the pitch by his team-mates.

Finally a clutch of players - led by El Hadji Diouf - performed a line dance for each of the four stands in turn.

Though Diouf failed to get on the scoresheet again, he almost single-handedly led the team in the Big Eye stadium: his ability to retain possession, and push the ball forward through the smallest of openings was invaluable.

The 21-year-old is not unaware of his own talents and neither was he shy of proclaiming the importance of his team's win.

"Today we were representing Senegal, we were representing Africa, but we were also representing France," he said, his designer sunglasses sparkling in the flashlights.

"It was a very difficult match, and both teams tried hard to win. But we showed that we were not just friends but brothers and we were determined to make the quarter-finals."

That determination was called upon after only 11 minutes, when a mistake by Tony Sylva cost them an early goal. A corner from Anders Svensson should have been claimed by Monaco's reserve keeper, but the ball slipped through his fingers and Henrik Larsson headed it low into the net. It was to be the last time that Larsson would appear in a Sweden shirt - he announced his international retirement after the match.

But Senegal deserved an equaliser, and it came before half-time. Diouf's looped pass reached Camara 20 yards from goal, and he produced one shimmy then another before darting past Teddy Lucic and shooting low inside Magnus Hedman's far post.

Sweden grabbed the initiative once more in the second half as Senegal were the first to tire. However, the 90 minutes elapsed without score and the game went into extra-time.

With one sublime piece of skill, Sweden almost snatched it. Svensson took a Larsson knockdown and spun beautifully to leave Ferdinand Coly flailing. He composed himself, shot fiercely, and saw the ball come back off the post.

A few minutes later the game was over. A back-heel from Pape Thiaw found Camara, who attacked the Swedish defence as he had for his first goal and hit the ball hard and low inside the same post.

"It was a completely crazy match, a great game for the supporters," Metsu said afterwards. "We would like to play Japan next, because facing the hosts in front of their own fans will be a big match.

"But whoever we face, it does not concern us: we will progress to the semi-finals."

They'll be eating on the streets of Dakar tonight.

SUBSTITUTES

Sweden: Jonsson for M Svensson (100 mins). Senegal: Beye for Malick Diop (66).

YELLOW CARDS

Senegal: Coly, Thiaw