Jubilant Morocco welcomes home history-making World Cup team

The players of Morocco national football team celebrate during a homecoming parade in central Rabat, Morocco (Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP/PA)

Tens of thousands of jubilant Moroccans welcomed their national football team home on 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 players rolled into the capital with a heavy police escort.