France managed to overcome mistakes and imperfections in their World Cup final victory over Croatia with sheer mental strength to lift the trophy for the second time, coach Didier Deschamps said on Sunday.

France overpowered Croatia 4-2 to lift the trophy and Deschamps became only the third man, after Brazil's Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer to win it both as player and coach.

But they were made to sweat for about an hour and needed an own goal and a penalty to take the lead.

"My greatest source of pride is they had the right state of mind," Deschamps, who had captained France to the 1998 title, told reporters.

"Today there were imperfections, we did not do everything right but we had those mental and psychological qualities which were decisive for this World Cup."

France took the lead from a Mario Mandzukic own goal and they had to soak up a sustained Croatian offensive, including a 28th-minute equaliser, before going in front with a penalty.

They then struck twice midway through the second half to put the game beyond the Croats.

Deschamps said 14 of his players were World Cup newcomers but were ready to work towards a common goal and were mentally more mature than their age.

"Talent is not sufficient. You need the psychological and mental aspects. Any team is then able to climb mountains," Deschamps said.

"Sometimes I can be hard very hard with them but I do it for them and even though they are young they usually do listen."

Among the newcomers are Kylian Mbappe who was voted young player of the tournament and scored France's fourth goal.

"The collective is always important but there are individual players who have made the difference," he said, naming Mbappe and man-of-the-match Antoine Griezmann.

"Those 23 players will now be linked forever whatever happens. They will go different paths but will forever be linked together and from today nothing will be the same professionally because they are world champions.

"We will realise what has happened tomorrow," he said after his players stormed the news conference twice to douse him with champagne. "At the moment they do not know what it is to be world champions."

The 49-year-old coach, who also led France to the Euro 2016 final only to lose in Paris to Portugal, said that defeat may have been key to winning the World Cup.

"Maybe if we were Euro champions we would not have been world champions today. I learned a lot from that defeat," he said.

"The Euro final was different. We tried to stay relaxed this time and the players knew what they had to do and what was at stake."

Japan's economy grew at a slightly slower pace than initially reported in the second quarter, hurt by downward revisions in corporate and household spending that point to a bumpier second half for consumption and the central bank's rate-hike plans.

The Bank of Japan is keen to see consistent improvement in domestic demand as it focuses on exiting its decade-long monetary stimulus programme and raising interest rates further in coming months.

The nation's gross domestic product expanded by an annualised 2.9 percent in the April-June quarter from the previous three months, the Cabinet Office's revised data showed on Monday, versus economists' median forecast for 3.2 percent growth and a 3.1 percent rise in the preliminary estimate.

The revised figure for the world's fourth-biggest economy translates into a quarter-on-quarter expansion of 0.7 percent in price-adjusted terms, compared with a 0.8 percent rise issued last month.

"The economy as a whole has been stagnant since the second half of 2023 although it had finally rebounded in April-June," said Kengo Tanahashi, economist at Nomura Securities.

The capital expenditure component of GDP, a barometer of private demand-led strength, rose 0.8 percent in the second quarter, revised down from a 0.9 percent uptick in the initial estimate. Economists had estimated a 1 percent rise.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the Japanese economy, increased 0.9 percent, versus the preliminary reading of 1 percent growth.

Analysts expect the Japanese economy will continue to improve gradually supported by positive trends in wages and personal and corporate spending, while risks remain from external factors such as a potential slowdown in the US and Chinese economies.

The economy may show signs of losing momentum in the current quarter, Tanahashi of Nomura securities said, citing weaker-than-expected July household spending data released last week.

"The July household spending data was disappointing, to say the least, and the (real) wages bump in June and July were anchored by summer bonuses than by an increase in basic salaries," he said.

"The possibility that the momentum of private consumption in the July-September period will be weaker than expected has been increasing."

External demand, or exports minus imports, knocked 0.1 percentage point off growth, unchanged from the preliminary reading. On the other hand, domestic demand contributed 0.8 percentage point.

While the revised second quarter GDP data is likely to have little sway on BOJ's decision making now, economists said recent data on spending is clouding the path to the central bank's rate-hike plans.

The BOJ in July raised its key interest rate to 0.25 percent from 0-0.1 percent, and markets are looking for clues to the timing of its next move.

None of the economists polled by Reuters last month predicted a rate hike at the next policy-setting meetings on Sept. 19-20, while a majority anticipated a tightening by year's end.

Nomura's Tanahashi said the BOJ is likely to proceed with the normalisation of monetary policy absent any market turmoil, noting the central bank went ahead with a rate hike in July despite softer consumption.

Most other economists also expect the central bank to continue to raise rates barring major trouble spots on growth and inflation.

"While underlying inflation has been moderating since the start of the year, we expect this trend to reverse in response to strong wage growth and resilient activity," said Benjamin Shatil, economist at JPMorgan Securities.

"We continue to expect the BOJ to deliver its next rate hike in December."

Eight people were killed during Senegal's football league cup final in Dakar on Saturday, the sports minister told AFP, as a wall collapsed onto clashing supporters triggering a panicked stampede.

Sports minister Matar Ba said a young girl was among the dead, while around 60 injured fans had been taken to health facilities in Dakar.

He vowed "strong measures so that such an event will never be repeated in Senegal," speaking to AFP by phone.

A mass deployment of firefighters and ambulances remained at the scene late Saturday.

An AFP journalist who attended the match described a stadium full to bursting with people for the long-awaited clash between local teams US Ouakam and Stade de Mbour.

At 2-1 during extra time, US Ouakam supporters began throwing stones at Stade de Mbour fans, causing spectators to begin vacating their seats in a rush, the journalist said.

Part of a wall supporting bleachers seating fans from both sides then collapsed, while police had begun firing tear gas and panic spread in the stadium leading to a crush.

"All of a sudden when the wall fell... we knew exactly that some of our own had lost their lives because the wall fell directly onto people," said Cheikh Maba Diop, a witness who helped evacuate victims from the stadium and lost a friend in the tragedy.

Also speaking at the scene, football fan Mara Die Diouf said policing at the stadium had been inadequate.

"What I find terrible is that we have this kind of final in this kind of stadium here where there isn't enough security," he said.

Diouf described police retreating from an area separating the two teams' supporters once projectiles began being thrown, triggering dangerous movements by spectators unable to defend themselves.

AFP journalists at the scene saw belongings covered in blood at the site, with a pair of glasses and clothing strewn among broken pieces of concrete.

Campaigning for Senegal's legislative elections due on July 30 would on Sunday be suspended in respect for the victims, said a spokesman for President Macky Sall.

Sall also wanted "punishments serving as a warning," following the tragedy, spokesman El Hamidou Kasse said on TFM television.

Senegal's safety record at large gatherings has been heavily criticised this year after the death of dozens of people at a religious retreat in April when a fire ripped through makeshift shelters.

Belgium finished third in the World Cup, their best-ever performance, when they beat England 2-0 with an early Thomas Meunier goal and a breakaway finished by Eden Hazard in Saturday's playoff between the losing semi-finalists.

Meunier finished off a devastating move when he turned in Nacer Chadli's low cross at the far post in the fourth minute after Romelu Lukaku's pass sliced open the English defence.

Belgium, who beat England 1-0 in a group match in the tournament, were more dangerous throughout a lively first half. But England improved after the break and nearly equalised when Eric Dier got clear and chipped over Thibaut Courtois, only for Toby Alderweireld to make a sliding clearance off the line.

Belgium continued to threaten on the break and finished off the game when Kevin de Bruyne set Hazard clear and he swept his shot past Jordan Pickford.

The world's longest-serving death row prisoner hears from a Japanese court on Thursday if he will again face execution or finally be acquitted, a decade after obtaining a retrial of his murder conviction.

Iwao Hakamada, 88, was jailed under the death penalty for 46 years until he was freed in 2014 pending a retrial.

The former boxer was first convicted in 1968 of killing his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

But over the years, questions arose over fabricated evidence and coerced confessions, sparking scrutiny of Japan's justice system, which critics say holds suspects "hostage".

"For so long, we have fought a battle that has felt endless," Hakamada's sister Hideko, 91, told reporters in July. "But this time, I believe it will be settled".

Prosecutors meanwhile have said they remain convinced of his guilt "beyond reasonable doubt".

Japan is the only major industrialised democracy other than the United States to retain capital punishment, a policy that has broad public support.

Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases resulted in exoneration.

After decades of detention, mostly in solitary confinement, Hakamada's health has deteriorated and he sometimes seems like he "lives in a world of fantasy", according to his lead lawyer Hideyo Ogawa.

Speaking to AFP in 2018, Hakamada underlined his ongoing battle to obtain an acquittal, saying he felt he was "fighting a bout every day".

"Once you think you can't win, there is no path to victory," he said.

Blood and miso

Although the Supreme Court upheld Hakamada's death sentence in 1980, his supporters fought for decades to have the case reopened.

A turning point came in 2014 when a retrial was granted on the grounds that prosecutors could have planted evidence, and Hakamada was released from prison.

Legal back-and-forth, including a pushback by prosecutors, meant it took until last year for the retrial to begin.

Hakamada initially denied having robbed and murdered the victims, but confessed following what he later described as a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.

Central to the trial is a set of blood-stained clothes found in a tank of miso -- fermented soybean paste -- a year after the 1966 murders, used as evidence to incriminate Hakamada.

The defence argues investigators likely set up the clothes, as the red stains on them were too bright, but prosecutors say their own experiments show the colour is credible.

Hakamada's supporters and rights groups say his saga exposes Japan's flawed justice process and the cruelty of the death penalty.

In Japan, death row prisoners are notified of their hanging a few hours in advance.

The case is "just one of countless examples of Japan's so-called 'hostage justice' system", Teppei Kasai, Asia programme officer for Human Rights Watch, told AFP.

"Suspects are forced to confess through long and arbitrary periods of detention" and there is often "intimidation during interrogation", he said.

Hakamada's defence team has petitioned the Shizuoka prosecution office to let a not-guilty verdict stand if that is how the court rules on Thursday.

"We told prosecutors that the onus is on them to put an end to this 58-year-old case", Ogawa told reporters this month.