There were no cheering crowds or ticker tape parade Friday along the dangerous airport road to greet Iraq's Asian Cup soccer champs. And the team's captain, a Sunni who scored the winning goal, didn't even return because he feared for his life.

But several hundred fans waved Iraqi flags and scuffled with police as they pushed through airport security to greet the country's soccer heroes as they stepped off a charter plane about 7 p.m.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, embraces Asian Cup soccer champion Hayder Abdul Razak as the Iraqi national soccer team arrives at the al-Rashid hotel in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, Iraq on Friday, Aug. 3, 2007. The national team, which hasn't played a home game in 17 years, landed at Baghdad's international airport Friday evening. [AP]

Police wielded truncheons against some in the crowd who were trying to touch goalkeeper Nour Sabri. He was hoisted onto the teammates' shoulders and carried to a waiting bus, which took the team into central Baghdad for a meeting with the prime minister at his Green Zone office.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave each a diplomatic passport and put a wreath of flowers around their necks.

Tight security in the heart of the capital ¡ª and the team's late arrival ¡ª prevented many Baghdad residents from celebrating in the streets.

"It is an incomplete joy, because all other people welcome their winning teams in the streets of their capitals and we in Iraq had to be the last ones to receive them," said 40-year-old Naeem Abdullah.

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