Thousands of supporters thronged Ghana's main airport to welcome home the national team following their agonising World Cup quarter-final defeat by Uruguay .
Kotoka international airport was packed with fans - many drumming and dancing - who started gathering six hours before the team's expected arrival.
National flags were waved at the players as they stepped out of the plane amid a deafening sound of vuvuzelas. Fans carried placards reading 'We love you our heroes, you made Ghana and Africa proud'.
"You've really held high the flag of Ghana and the entire African continent," Nii Nortey Duah, deputy minister of sports, told the players at the airport.
Captain Stephen Appiah said to the crowd: "We did our best but luck was not on our side but we'll go to Brazil in 2014 to be major title contenders."
Diego Maradona and his Argentina World Cup squad declined an invitation by the country's president Cristina Kirchner to be received at the presidential palace because they deemed themselves unworthy.
Kirchner also said that she had tried to speak to Maradona following Saturday's 4-0 quarter-final defeat by Germany but the 49-year-old had been too upset to talk.
"You know that this president shows her true colours to the people in the difficult moments and not just the good ones," the 57-year-old told a rally in the northern suburb of San Miguel.
"And I invited our squad to come to the presidential palace. The players refused because they felt they did not deserve such an accolade but I believe they are wrong because they all deserved it and I will wait for them. Yes, long live Argentina.
"On Saturday, Argentines were very sad. But have patience, Maradona, the squad and the country, even if the sadness, will last. I called him after his press conference on Saturday but he was not able to talk because he was crying.
"I offer my support because nobody has ever given as much pleasure on the pitch than Diego Armando Maradona gave us."
Her speech went down well with her audience who answered with joyous cries of: "Ole, ole, ole, ole, Diegoooo, Diegooooooo!".
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque admits misfiring striker Fernando Torres may not start against Germany. "He continues to be an important player for us and one that the other squad members are used to," he said.
"All strikers go through good and bad runs but he brings his work rate and his personality to the team and he is still our forward.
"You should not necessarily take my words to mean that he is definitely going to be starting (the Germany match) but we have full confidence in him."
A survey in newspaper Bild has shown that 83% of Germans believe their side will win the World Cup.
www.bbc.co.uk
