Morocco's King leads street celebrations of his country's historic World Cup win

RABAT - Morocco’s King Mohammed VI clad in his national football team’s jersey celebrated Tuesday night his country’s historic win against Spain with Moroccan fans in the streets of Rabat.

Waving the flag from his car’s window, the King was all smiles as he was sharing his joy with thousands of fans surrounding his car.

The king’s surprising outing in Rabat to celebrate Morocco’s elimination of fancied Spain in a penalty shootout to reach the quarter-finals thrilled the crowd.

Morocco became the first Arab nation to advance to the last eight, ensuring a breakthrough for the region in the first global tournament in the Middle East, and also became the fourth African side to go this far in World Cup history.

Their victory will be seen as not only a triumph for Morocco but vindication of the controversial FIFA decision to hand Qatar the hosting rights, adding significant gloss to another Arab success at the tournament like Saudi Arabia beating Argentina and Tunisia upsetting holders France in the group phase.

Morocco, who edged Spain 3-0 in the shootout after a 0-0 draw at the end of two hours of energy-sapping action, now have a chance to become both the Arab world and Africa's first-ever semi-finalists if they continue to use the overwhelming support that has backed them through an impressive array of results.

They will play on Saturday in the quarter-final at Doha's Al Thumama Stadium against either Portugal or Switzerland, who are in action later on Tuesday.