Champions League review: pain for PSG but Inter and Arsenal on rise

Europe’s finest head-scratching struggles go on. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Inter: The 2023 finalists are second in the table and yet to concede a goal. They are yet to score many either, notching only seven goals in their five games. The latest victims of Simone Inzaghi’s smooth, efficient machine were RB Leipzig, whose own calamitous pointless campaign continued with a 1-0 defeat. An own goal from Castello Lukeba decided it after a wicked free-kick from Federico Dimarco, the wing-back playing an unfamiliar midfield role but was just as dangerous. As Leipzig desperately chased something from the match to rescue their campaign, it fell to the Inter defence to show off their usual control, the experience of Benjamin Pavard, Stefan de Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni as the defensive trio seeing out the job in some comfort.

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Iga Swiatek accepts one-month ban after testing positive for trimetazidine

  • World No 2 deemed her level of fault ‘at the lowest end’
  • Pole’s medication for jet lag and sleep was contaminated

Iga Swiatek, the world No 2 women’s tennis player, has received a one month ban after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in August 2024.

In a statement on Thursday, the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which governs the tennis anti-doping programme, ruled that Swiatek’s anti-doping rule violation was not intentional and that she bore no significant fault or negligence for the positive test on “the lowest end of the range” and they imposed a one month ban.

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