Thousands of football fans thronged Ghana's main airport on Monday night to welcome back home the national team who gallantly and narrowly lost to Uruguay in the quarter-finals at the World Cup.

Kotoka international airport was choked with fans who started gathering as early as six hours before the team's expected arrival.

Even a two-hour delay in arrival from 9:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) would not deter the drumming and dancing fans who eagerly awaited the heroes' return.

There were spontaneous shouts of joy when the South African Airways jet the Black Stars flew in touched down.

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".

Ghana's Black Eagles made it to the quarter-finals for the first time equalling the feat of Senegal and Cameroon, and became the only African team to make it that far at the tournament.

"You've really held high the flag of Ghana and the entire African continent," Nii Nortey Duah, Deputy Minister of Sports, told the players.

"We did our best but luck was not on our side but we'll go to Brazil in 2014 to be major contenders," captain Stephen Appiah said.

Kwasi Amponsah, a fan said: "What the boys have done will forever be remembered by the whole world."