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The FA

Wembley Stadium opens

It's the countdown to the New Year, but before we say hello to 2008, we look back at some of The FA's highlights of 2007. On Saturday 17 March, the new Wembley Stadium opened its turnstiles for the very first time.

Around 60,000 residents of the Brent Council area were given the opportunity to have a look around and test the stadium, rebuilt on the site of the old venue which last hosted a match on 7 October 2000. The Community Day was part of the safety certificate application process and also featured a celebrity football tournament.

But the first official game took place a week later on 24 March, when England's Under-21s met Italy in what turned out to be a truly memorable day.

Italian striker Giampaulo Pazzini scored the opening goal within 29 seconds of the kick-off, on the way to firing the first ever hat-trick at a restricted-capacity Wembley. It wasn't all one-way traffic, however, as David Bentley scored a free-kick - making him the first Englishman to score there - and Wayne Routledge and Matt Derbyshire also got on the scoresheet in an entertaining 3-3 draw.

England's U16s also had a game at Wembley on 28 April, a 1-0 over Spain, but the real opening event came on 19 May. Having already hosted the FA Trophy and Vase Finals, 89,826 Manchester United and Chelsea fans saw the Blues beat the Reds 1-0 in The FA Cup Final, courtesy of a Didier Drogba extra-time winner.

The first England Senior international was on a Friday night, 1 June. Brazil were the visitors and provided a carnival atmosphere as captain John Terry headed England in front with 22 minutes left.

However, a Diego equaliser in injury-time meant the honours were even.

There were five more Wembley games for the Three Lions in 2007; Germany (1-2) in August, Israel (3-0) and Russia (3-0) in September, Estonia (3-0) in October and Croatia (2-3) in November.

The first Community Shield was also played at the new stadium, ironically between Manchester United and Chelsea again - The Cup Finalists and the last teams to meet in a Shield game at the old stadium. 

This time it was United's day winning a penalty shoot-out after Ryan Giggs and Florent Malouda scored the goals to make it 1-1 after 90 minutes.

Other events have taken place there, too. The FA Umbro Fives Tournament, the Football League Play-Offs, the Carnegie Challenge Cup Final in Rugby, a number of high profile music concerts such as George Michael, the Concert for Diana, Live Earth and Muse, the Race of Champions and the first ever regular season NFL fixture outside of North America between Miami Dolphins and New York Giants.

England's next game at Wembley is on 6 February, which will be Fabio Capello's first game in charge. Switzerland are the visitors and tickets are available to buy online. For more information, click here.