England v Poland: Wojciech Szczesny returns to Wembley established as a 'world class' goalkeeper

Juventus stopper will be tasked with keeping old rival Harry Kane quiet in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier

Wojciech Szczesny, right, has been described as one of two 'world class players for Poland. The other, Robert Lewandowski, left, will miss the World Cup qualifier with England through injury. Reuters

It is just over a decade since Wojciech Szczesny made his senior Wembley debut and had his moment to forget. It was the League Cup final, he was 20 years old and making a strong claim to become his then club, Arsenal’s undisputed first-choice goalkeeper.

The opposition were Birmingham City. Arsenal had come into the final clear favourites. But at 1-1, with extra-time approaching, there was nervousness. It afflicted Arsenal horribly in the 89th minute, when a miscommunication between the young goalkeeper and defender Laurent Koscielny allowed Obafemi Martins, of Birmingham, to pounce between them and score the winning goal.

Szczesny returns to Wembley on Wednesday night with his national team, Poland, assured that trauma is a long way behind him. The stadium has been relatively kind in the years since, the site of two FA Cup triumphs, and he will be able to retrace those memories with Lukasz Fabianski, his fellow Poland goalkeeper, as expert witness. The two glovemen once jousted at Arsenal for the role of senior keeper, and have rotated the position from time to time as joint No 1s for their country.

That can be an awkward relationship for goalkeeping teammates: they are crucial training-ground allies, but compete for the one role in the matchday XI which is absolutely exclusive. Szczesny, 30, and Fabianski, five years older, are said to have managed the alliance well over the years, and if the younger man has gradually overtaken the older one in the national squad’s hierarchy, he knows status is never permanently guaranteed for a goalkeeper.

Szczesny has had to measure himself, close up, against some very fine keepers throughout his career. It started early. His father, Maciej, was a Poland international. Elder brother Jan played professionally. Wojciech was scouted by Arsenal at the age of 15, and worked his way up, via some shuttling of the No 1 position with Fabianski – now of West Ham United – to become the club’s preferred custodian by his mid-20s, brave, agile but occasionally prone to a rush of blood.

He shared the Premier League’s Golden Gloves prize for most clean sheets with Chelsea’s Petr Cech in 2013-14, at which point Fabianski moved on, seeking an opportunity at Swansea City.

A year later Cech joined Arsenal, abruptly displacing Szczesny. So began Szczesny’s Italian adventure, two seasons on loan at Roma where he impressed, maintaining his position as first-choice in Serie A matches even ahead of Alisson Becker, now of Liverpool.

Juventus, the serial Italian champions, swooped, though it was clear that the move would confront Szczesny with perhaps the biggest impediment possible to establishing himself in the first XI: Gianluigi Buffon was still at Juve.

Aged 43, Buffon is a colleague even now, although such is Szczesny’s ownership of the Juventus jersey – which he established when Buffon left for a season at Paris Saint-Germain – the great Italian is very much the understudy. So much so that Buffon is reportedly looking again for a move, even at his advanced age, because he’d like more minutes on the pitch before he eventually retires.

At Juventus Szczesny has won three league titles, a collection that endorses his status in Polish football. “Poland have two world-class players, Robert Lewandowski and Szczesny,” says the former Poland keeper Jan Tomaszewski, himself a national hero, partly because of his heroics in a fabled Wembley draw in 1973 that took Poland to a World Cup at England’s expense. “We are stronger in the goalkeeping position than England are.”

On Wednesday night, to the relief of England goalkeeper Nick Pope, Lewandowski will be missing with a knee injury. A portion of the side's leadership will thus pass on to the last line of defence, to an ex-Arsenal goalkeeper whose principal tasks include thwarting Harry Kane, of Tottenham Hotspur.

Kane hardly needs reminding that the keeper has a habit of stirring up the Arsenal-Spurs rivalry. Three years ago, on his last Wembley visit as back-up to Buffon in a Juventus win over Tottenham Champions League quarter-final, Szczesny engaged in some lively, provocative dialogue from the bench with Spurs supporters.

There will be no spectators this time, but there will be the sound of Szczesny’s voice, carrying loud and clear, instructing his defenders. Even as a youngster, he was assertive. As a serial club champion, he has earned the right to be heard.