Casiraghi admires entertaining Italy

Pierluigi Casiraghi was one of almost 56,000 in the new Wembley entertained by the Azzurrini’s exploits today.

"It was a very entertaining game," smiled the Italy boss at the end of a 3-3 draw with their English counterparts. "There were a few mistakes on our side defensively, but matches can be enjoyable even with such errors."

It was an important test for the squad, as Italy will face England in the group phase of the European Under-21 Championships in June.

"We did well upfront, but in general today I saw a team with personality that proved it is in the ascendancy. I am satisfied, especially in the way we constructed play."

The hero was undoubtedly Giampaolo Pazzini, who opened the scoring after just 29 seconds and went on to net the first hat-trick at the rebuilt stadium.

The Fiorentina star couldn't quite believe he scored an historic hat-trick. "I certainly never even dreamed this would happen," he said after the match.

"Just yesterday I didn’t expect to score one goal here, let alone three with the first after less than 30 seconds. I am feeling incredible joy right now."

The striker wrote his name in several different pages of the history books with this match. He became the first player ever to score at the new Wembley in this inaugural competitive match, an Under-21 friendly.

He netted within 29 seconds, the fastest ever international goal here, shattering the record of 38 seconds. Pazzini also joins the short list of foreigners to have netted a hat-trick at Wembley, although he is by no means the first Italian. Gennaro Ruotolo achieved the feat for Genoa in the 5-2 Anglo-Italian Cup Final win over Port Vale.

Roberto Di Matteo also scored three goals under the towers, but in different games. He was on target for Chelsea in the 2-0 Cup win over Middlesbrough on May 17, 1998, again a year later against the same team and in May 2000 to beat Aston Villa.