It has been a momentous week for Artur Boruc, if not quite for his Polish pals. The Celtic goalkeeper celebrated the birth of his first son, Alex, before producing an awesome display that protected Poland from a battering against Austria on Thursday night.

Leo Beenhakker declared him one of the top 10 goalkeepers in the world. It was an unusually conservative comment. It is difficult to think of nine more reliable specialists. Gianluigi Buffon is recognised as the best in the business, with Petr Cech not far behind him. Thereafter, there is no-one who possesses Boruc's brawn or excellence on the big occasion, certainly not in this tournament.

Edwin van der Sar has the experience but, at 37, he is becoming increasingly fallible at set-pieces. Sebastian Frey has cat-like reactions but does not possess the sheer presence of Boruc. The same applies to Iker Casillas, Spain's prodigious shot-stopper cursed by a lack of inches. Jens Lehmann is Germany's No.1 for no other reason than his skills have eroded at a slower rate than Oliver Kahn's.

Boruc's heroics are nothing new to Gordon Strachan. None the less, in his summer job as BBC pundit, he was publicly effusive in his praise of Boruc's expertise. Privately, he will be preparing himself for renewed attempts to prise Boruc from Celtic Park. In international terms, Boruc is a one-man team. The country's player of the tournament during World Cup 2006, he has since seen off the challenges of Jerzy Dudek, Tomasz Kuszczak and Lukas Fabianski to become the undisputed No.1.

Read On [The Herald]