Jubilant Morocco welcomes home history-making World Cup team

The players of Morocco national soccer team celebrate on a bus and wave during a homecoming parade in central Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. Morocco national team won the fourth place at the last World Cup. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Tens of thousands of jubilant Moroccans welcomed their national soccer team home Tuesday after the players exceeded the North African nation's wildest expectations and finished fourth at the World Cup in Qatar.

Fans packed squares and lined up along avenues and streets in and around Rabat, lighting flares, waving flags, dancing to the beat of drums and cheering as an open-top bus carrying the suit and tie-clad players rolled into the capital with a heavy police escort.