Wojciech Szczesny is expected to be on the bench at Wembley tonight but he will never accept being just the reserve goalkeeper for Poland.

The fall-out from his blunder in the opening match of Euro 2012 still affects Szczesny, who finds himself relegated to the role of Poland’s second goalkeeper behind Southampton’s Artur Boruc. It is a situation the Arsenal No1 is determined to change.

“I will never join up with the national team accepting the position of second choice,” the 23-year-old said. “It is not something that I could ever come to terms with. I’m in form, I feel strong, and I’ll try to prove that in the coming weeks with Arsenal.

“It isn’t pleasant to watch matches from the substitutes’ bench. I will work really hard to change that. I’ve probably matured enough to finally understand that it is the team who are most important and not one individual.”

Although Poland have been eliminated, there is a great desire among the country’s leading goalkeepers to try to emulate Jan Tomaszewski’s 1973 Wembley heroics.

Now it seems Boruc and not Szczesny will get the opportunity to attempt a repeat of that display, which prevented Alf Ramsey’s England from reaching the World Cup finals.

Unsurprisingly, the Arsenal player is unhappy at missing out, describing himself as “not jumping for joy”.

“Since the March matches, Artur Boruc is the goalkeeper and he is doing what is required of him without fault,” admitted Szczesny.

If he does not play tonight, it would mean he will have not featured at all in any of Poland’s 10 matches in England’s group over the past two seasons and will conclude a dismal year and a half for him with the national side.

Szczesny has not completed a full 90 minutes for Poland since a friendly in Estonia 14 months ago.

Subsequently he has been restricted to twice playing one half of a couple of friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Denmark.

The latter took his tally up to 14 international appearances in total. It was cap No11 that has been the most influential of his career so far, when in June last year he played his first competitive match for the national team — and still his only one to date.

The opening game of Euro 2012 at the new National Stadium in Warsaw was meant to be his biggest but it ended up being his worst as a 68th-minute red card for a penalty area foul ended his involvement.

The first touch of his replacement, Przemysław Tyton, was to save the penalty that Szczesny had conceded moments before.

That secured 10-man Poland a 1-1 draw with Greece and for Tyton a place in the line-up for the foreseeable future. Szczesny fell overnight from being one of the biggest stars of Polish football alongside striker Robert Lewandowski, with the centre of Warsaw dominated by his huge image displayed on high-rise buildings, to the nation’s forgotten man.

According to several Polish football experts, Szczesny has still not fully recovered from his Euro 2012 disappointment, although a spell out of the Arsenal team in the spring, and also out of the media spotlight, has helped him start to rediscover his old self.

His international ambitions were not even rekindled when Tyton picked up an injury earlier in the year, as it coincided with Boruc’s return to form following an extended absence from the Polish squad. But, if a third new coach in three years now comes in as anticipated, the goalkeeping hierarchy may alter once again.

Szczesny added: “I want to continue improving and recently I feel things haven’t gone too badly for me.

“The most important aspect is consistency of performance at a high level. But, according to some critics, whatever I do will never be good enough.”