Penalty king Szczesny is primed to stop France

THERE was a time during his spell at Arsenal when Wojciech Szczesny remembers being teased about his lack of success when it comes to keeping out penalties. ‘I’ve recently heard: “Wojciech, you haven’t saved a penalty for a year now!”,’ he said back in 2014. ‘(It was not from someone at the club), it was from let’s say a friend who’s also a supporter.’ Szczesny is not having to wait anywhere near as long these days with his reputation as a penalty-saver growing. His most recent brilliant stop came on Wednesday when he defied the mighty Lionel Messi. The 32-year-old previously saved one four days earlier against Saudi Arabia, making it back-to-back penalty stops. Vital ones, too, as Poland only scraped into the last 16 on goal difference. Spells of spot-kick invincibility are nothing new for Szczesny.

Last season, he saved three straight penalties for Juventus and has kept out nine in the last two-and-a-half seasons for club and country. Across his career, which also includes spells at Brentford and Roma, Szczesny has saved 26 out of 87 penalties. He highlighted the impact and analysis work done with Juve goalkeeper coach Claudio Filippi following his Saudi Arabia save. And for someone who once said his biggest flaw was being lazy, Szczesny is anything but in his approach to research. Ahead of his side’s last-16 clash with France tomorrow afternoon, Szczesny said: ‘You have to study your opposition closely and work out what they’ll do at the key moment. It’s not about emotions, it’s down to the preparation that we do.’