After Poland beat Switzerland to reach the Euro 2016 quarter-finals, Lukasz Fabianski let his joy show, a rarity for someone deemed too shy to be really good.
The goalkeeper roared and punched his fists in the air. The 31-year-old Swansea player rarely shows such emotion.
“Fabianski, or the triumph of a timid player,” read a splash in Poland’s Rzeczpospolita daily after Poland won on penalties following a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
“Fab” pulled some magic saves and only a spectacular Xherdan Shaqiri scissors kick beat him. Shaqiri is the only player so far to score against Poland at the tournament.
“I’m not going to tell you whether this was my best international game,” Fabianski said after helping set Poland up against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in Marseille today. “I just did what I was expected to do,” shrugged the man described by media as “reserved”, “modest”, “too nice”, even “Bambi”, after the fawn from the 1942 Walt Disney movie.
At times, the nicknames have turned into reproachful labels on the perpetual number-two keeper, both in clubs and on the international scene.
“People have always assessed me according to my behaviour off the pitch — kind, well-behaved,” says Fabianski, who has managed only 33 international games since his debut in 2006.

Szczesny rivalry
Despite playing the last six games of Poland’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, Fabianski started the tournament as a number two to Wojciech Szczesny.
The two contestants for the Poland job also clashed at Arsenal, where Fabianski frequently found himself shaded by his rival who is exactly five years his junior.
In early 2011, Fabianski looked set to finally become Arsenal’s number one, but a shoulder injury ruled him out for the rest of the season, barring him from his dream for good.
The injury was due in part to Szczesny who blasted a shot at Fabianski during a warm-up ahead of a game with Manchester City. Fabianski pulled a great save which cost him dear.
“I take advantage of my teammates’ misfortunes,” sighed Szczesny, who spent last season at Roma on loan from Arsenal.
At Euro 2016, it was his own misfortune that put Fabianski in charge. Szczesny led Poland to a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland in the opener but injured his thigh during the game.
Fabianski then shut out world champions Germany and Ukraine in the remaining group games.

Normal young man
Born on April 18, 1985 in Kostrzyn nad Odra, a town on the border with former East Germany, Fabianski started his career with Polonia Slubice. At 19, he signed up with Poland’s top-flight side Lech Poznan, where he spent a mere six months before joining Legia Warsaw.
Legia relied on Artur Boruc, but Poland’s number three at Euro soon moved to Celtic, turning Fabianski into the first-choice keeper.
Fabianski won a title with Legia in his first season and was chosen as the Polish league’s top keeper twice before joining Arsenal in July, 2007.
But his seven-year stint with the Gunners turned out a sour experience for Fabianski who more often than not warmed the bench for Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia and Szczesny.
Fabianski scrambled a mere 78 appearances for Arsenal, earning a “Flapianski” label from some disillusioned fans.
In 2014, he left the Gunners to start a new chapter with Swansea, where he at last became an incontestable number one.
The timid star is married to his secondary school friend Anna, with whom he has a six-month-old son named Jan.
“He is a hero of the pitch, not tabloids,” Rzeczpospolita wrote.