Unexpected behavior while using single level wildcard + for the subscriber application.

[vpeddada-tibco]

We are connecting to HiveMQ cluster using paho client V5 i.e org.eclipse.paho.mqttv5.client-1.2.5.jar.
While we were evaluating the multi level wildcard feature for the subscriber we observed a discrepancy in behavior.

Here is a short descripton of the use case:

Expected: The + wildcard in MQTT should match only one topic level. So, a subscription to sport/tennis/+ should not match a published topic like sport/tennis/2023/team, as it contains two levels after sport/tennis/. Only sport/tennis/2023 should match when + is used after sport/tennis.

Reference links:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v5.0/os/mqtt-v5.0-os.html#_Toc3901245
https://www.hivemq.com/blog/mqtt-essentials-part-5-mqtt-topics-best-practices

Actual behavior :
when topic name for the subscriber is used as sport/tennis/+ and the message is published to sport/tennis/2023/team, then the subscriber still receives this message.

Could this be a valid item for a defect? Please let us know if any additional information is required. FYI, we register a callback to receive the messages.