WITNESS-Soccer-Magic takes just 30 seconds to return to Wembley

By Mike Collett

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Whatever else he achieves in the rest of his career, young Italian striker Gianpaolo Pazzini will never forget what he did on the afternoon of March 24 2007 -- and neither will those of us among the 60,000 crowd who watched him do it.

Pazzini kicked off the first official match at the glittering new Wembley Stadium, scored the first goal there 29 seconds later and finished up with a hat-trick as England drew 3-3 with Italy in an Under-21 international friendly.

The match was a ramp-up or "test" event held to enable the stadium to pass safety requirements before the FA Cup final is held there in May.

Even when the old Wembley Stadium was showing its age in the 1980s and 1990s it was always a magical place to watch football -- and if Saturday's match is anything to go by, it is going to be just as magical in the future.

Because the stadium is simply -- stunning.

I first went to the old Wembley Stadium as an eight-year-old with my father in 1962 -- and mainly remember being pelted with apple cores by older boys during a schoolboy international between England and Germany.

Over the next 38 years I saw more than 120 matches there, a few rock concerts, and even played on the hallowed turf once with Bobby Moore, George Best, Alan Ball and others before seeing the last game there in October 2000 when England lost to Germany and Kevin Keegan resigned as England coach immediately afterwards.