Morocco’s national soccer team is set to return home Tuesday after accomplishing the see mingly impossible feat of finishing fourth at the World Cup in Qatar. Tens of thousands of Moroccans were expected to turn out to greet the players. As the first African or Arab team to reach the World Cup semifinals, the Moroccan team, known as the Atlas Lions, made history and was one of the big success stories of this year’s tournament, the first hosted by an Arab nation. Big crowds were in the streets of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, and the rest of the North African kingdom for the homecoming. After the team beat former European colonial powers Belgium, Spain and Portugal, it lost to France in the semifinals. Its record-setting performance means the players are likely to receive a hero’s welcome. “Morocco’s run in the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be remembered in the history books as one of the most exciting campaigns since the tournament’s inception,” café owner Reda Ghazi, 27, told The Associated Press. “It was the dream of every Moroccan to win something, especially because Morocco is a country where the passion for football is overwhelming.” After their plane touches down, the players are set to ride an open-top bus through the major avenues of the capital. The royal court said Monday that King Mohammed VI would receive the team at the palace in Rabat “to celebrate their great and historic accomplishment.” Morocco finished fourth in the competition after losing to Croatia 1-2 in the third-place play-off on Saturday, exceeding the expectations of most Moroccans. “I still can’t wrap my head around what happened in this World Cup,” added student Anour El Berkaoui, 23. “The team has now set the bar so high that we won’t be happy with anything less than winning the upcoming African Cup of Nations.” Read more: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Morocco top Group F with win over Canada The Moroccan team charmed many Arab soccer fans who saw in the team a reflection of themselves. Players waved the Palestinian flag after their wins and celebrated on the field with their mothers and children. The team also galvanized support across Africa. “As an African team, we broke a lot of records and made the whole continent proud,” Rabat resident Omar Zorgane said . “Morocco as a whole will gain a lot from this year’s World Cup, from tourism to getting the attention of other countries to possibly hosting one of the biggest tournaments in the world in the future,” he said. Read more: France vs Morocco Semi-Final Preview: FIFA World Cup 2022

An eerie silence fell on a Moroccan village on Sunday after the death of a 5-year-old boy who had been trapped in a well for four days. For days — and nights — the community of Ighran, a village in a mountainous area in northern Morocco, had gathered along the edges of the well, cheering on the rescue workers and volunteers digging deep into difficult terrain to reach the hole where the boy, Rayan, was trapped. They offered support to Rayan’s parents. Millions watched the rescue operation on state TV. The boy was pulled out Saturday night by rescuers after a lengthy operation that captivated global attention. Convinced that Rayan was alive, the crowd was cheering as the child was rushed to an ambulance where his parents had been waiting. Just minutes after the ambulance pulled away, a statement from the royal palace said the boy has died. Moroccan King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents, Khaled Oram and Wassima Khersheesh. Messages of support, concern and grief for the boy and his family poured in from around the world as the news of Rayan’s death spread overnight Saturday. Pope Francis on Sunday described as “beautiful” how people had rallied around efforts to save Rayan’s life. Francis expressed thanks to the Moroccan people as he greeted the public in St. Peter’s Square. He praised people for “putting their all” into trying to save the child. Read:Morocco’s king says boy, 5, trapped in deep well has died The palace statement said Morocco’s king had been closely following the frantic rescue efforts by locals authorities, “instructing officials to use all means necessary to dig the boy out of the well and return him alive to his parents.” The king hailed the rescuers for their relentless work and the community for lending support to Rayan’s family. Rayan fell into a 32-meter (105-feet) well located outside his home on Tuesday evening. The exact circumstances of how he fell are unclear. For three days, search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch. Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy. Morocco’s MAP news agency said that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help. Rescuers used a rope to send oxygen and water down to the boy as well as a camera to monitor him. By Saturday morning, the head of the rescue committee, Abdelhadi Temrani, said: “It is not possible to determine the child’s condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive.” The work had been especially difficult because of fears that the soil surrounding the well could collapse on the boy. The village of about 500 people is dotted with deep wells, many used for irrigating the cannabis crop that is the main source of income for many in the poor, remote and arid region of Morocco’s Rif Mountains. Most of the wells have protective covers.