When the emotion and disappointment of Thursday's 2-0 defeat by France in Boston fades, Morocco will clearly be able to take some positives from another historic World Cup run.
The Atlas Lions became the first African nation to reach a second quarterfinal at the tournament - doing so consecutively after their run to the semifinals in 2022 - a feat which immediately sets them apart from any other generation from the continent.
Similarly, their performance against Brazil - particularly that gripping first half - will live long in the memory, as will their gutsy late equaliser and shootout triumph against the Netherlands.
Yassine Bounou again excelled - putting him firmly in the debate around Africa's greatest ever goalkeeper - while Ismael Saibari became a superstar in time for a big-money move to Bayern Munich.
Mohamed Ouahbi largely vindicated the federation's decision to appoint him in the place of long-term head coach Walid Regragui in the aftermath of the Africa Cup of Nations, impressing both with his behaviour and his tactical approach, as the 49-year-old ushered in a more proactive way of playing.
Ultimately, the North Africans have reached sixth place in the FIFA World Rankings, unprecedented heights for them, with only Nigeria in 1994 finding themselves on a higher position.
However...there's a big 'but'...
For all of the positives and encouraging steps, the approach, the performance and the nature of the elimination against France - coupled with the uninspired showing in the Last 16 victory over Canada - have left something of a bitter taste in the mouth as Morocco prepare to return to North Africa, while it's fair to question whether the Atlas Lions have actually regressed in the last four years.
First of all, there are the caveats.
Obviously, they were playing against tournament favourites in France, a superbly balanced team, with the experience of going deep in the competition, and a star-studded attack that could eviscerate any opponent at this World Cup.
Anyone of the other 47 teams who entered this competition would have found it tough up against Les Bleus - there is no shame in defeat - and Morocco were outsiders to get a result. Secondly, the injuries cannot be ignored.
The loss of Nayef Aguerd before the tournament denied Morocco their first-choice - and outstanding - centreback, while the loss of Abde Ezzalzouli cost them a rare direct, lethal attacking option with finishing touch and cutting edge.
How they could have done with both of those against France, particularly with Chadi Riad also not fit enough to take his place in the heart of the defence alongside Issa Diop.
Then, the loss of Saibari - injured with a hamstring complaint 22 minutes into the victory over Canada - denied Morocco their most in-form player, their chief goal threat, and the specific profile who unlocked the striker-less formation that Ouahbi had put in place.
During Morocco's early showings, the utilisation of Saibari gave hope that they could compensate for a lack of a defined centre forward, with Ouabhi overlooking Youssef En-Nesyri, only giving the briefest cameo to Ayoub El Kaabi, and not even turning to Soufiane Rahimi when the Bayern new boy was absent.
In the early games of the tournament, Saibari's qualities, specific skillset, and his brief gave Morocco just enough menace in attack, and made the system work.
The 25-year-old has an excellent awareness of space and opportunity, so whether it's pulling wide to allow space through the middle for the likes of Brahim Díaz or Azzedine Ounahi to attack, or dropping into midfield to support the players behind him, then taking on a more creative brief, he was an effective and dangerous presence.
Without him, against France, Bilal El Khannouss simply couldn't offer anything like the same added value or threat.
"Ismael had a lot of confidence. It was very important for us, so it was not easy [to be without him]," goalkeeper Munir Mohand told ESPN. "We tried to manage this situation because the most important thing is the collective, the team, for everybody to be ready to help the team.
"But of course, he's an important player for us, so not easy to replace, like the other players who have had problems - Nayef, Abde Ezzalzouli.
"This is not an excuse, in the end, we've made it to the eight best teams in the world - it's not easy to get here."
El Khannouss is not a bad player, but I'd argue he's the worst ever starting centreforward a World Cup quarterfinalist has fielded this century, and served up a wholly ineffective performance before being withdrawn before the hour mark.
On paper, with relatively limited options, maybe one could understand Ouahbi's thinking, but it didn't work.
El Khannouss doesn't have Saibari's strength, doesn't have his quickness of mind, at least not yet, and he was never reasonably going to be a threat for Dayot Upamecano and William Saliba.
His reduced movement left Morocco staid up front, while he didn't offer the support for the midfield that Saibari did either.
"[Saibari's injury] really changed things for us," winger Amine Sbaï told journalists. "He's an important player for us, he started the competition well, and he's got injured.
"Of course, it's a big loss for us. We hope he'll come back stronger, like Morocco."
Knowing his star man was out, Ouahbi had two choices; try to keep faith with the same approach but with different names, or adapt and use a more conventional striker, or bolster the midfield with Sofyan Amrabat.
He surely made the wrong decision, and his move to bring on Amrabat in the minutes before France opened the scoring is surely concession of fault.
Saibari also brought something else, a certain snap and sizzle to the frontline. He's not exactly a player who plays on the edge, but there's a certain bite in the way he plays, a certain intensity, an urgency, a sense of determination, which sparked Morocco in a way others struggled to do.
He was there in the big moments - the opener against Brazil, the winner against Scotland, the decisive penalty against Netherlands - and such has his stock climbed that his absence to the team's combativeness was also felt.
They took just five shots compared to 22 for France, without only one of those efforts forcing a save from Mike Maignan.
Achraf Hakimi seemed tentative, Ayyoub Bouaddi was sloppy, and Neil El Aynaoui lacked the tireless dynamism that he had done earlier in the campaign.
Without a player genuinely capable of stretching opponents and of taking chances, and with other key figures dropping five-ten percent, Morocco were always going to be up against it...even before circling back to the injuries.
It's here that it's reasonable to ask whether Morocco's three-knockout-game run in 2026 is inferior to their three-knockout-game run in 2022.
There was no doubting their tenacity, their commitment, their grinta during those magnificent displays against Spain and Portugal, whereas here, there was a distinct lack of spark when they needed it most.
Sbai disagrees: "The grinta and the desire were there," he added, "but football is not just about grinta and desire. We really wanted it, but it didn't work out.
"I think we were a bit wasteful, but that is part of the game as well. We'll come back stronger."
However, without the leadership and presence of Romain Saïss alongside the excellent Aguerd, their defence looked vulnerable, without Amrabat, their midfield lacked gnarling authority, while without individual magicians like Sofiane Boufal or Hakim Ziyech, they were without a player to strike fear into opponents.
If you don't have elite strength in depth across your squad, you cannot lose the emotional character that can compensate for very good sides when they come up against great sides. For all the praise Ouahbi has been getting, for all the talk of evolution, this game must be a reminder for Morocco that, whichever direction they're going in, they must not forget the values and qualities that got them to the semis in 2022 in the first place.
