Ryan Reynolds has gone from joy to despair, and punch-the-air ecstasy to desolation.
The unlikely new love of his life — Welsh soccer club Wrexham — put the movie star on an emotional roller-coaster on Sunday in a thrill-a-minute FA Cup tie that had an ending not quite in the script.
Wrexham, the fifth-tier team bought by Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney for $US2.5 million ($A3.5 million) in November 2020 on the recommendation of one of their writers, conceded an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time to draw 3-3 with Sheffield United.
Reynolds and one of his daughters flew in for the fourth-round match at the atmospheric Racecourse Ground in north Wales, about 45km south of Liverpool, and went through a whole range of emotions as the goals poured in at either end.
He’s getting used to it by now.
“I’m now so much in love with this sport that I actually hate it,” Reynolds, a Canadian-born actor best known for starring in the “Deadpool” movies, told the BBC before the match. “Each match I’m pacing around like a caged lion.”
Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds thanks the fans after the win over Sheffield United. (Photo by Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)
With 71 places between the teams in English soccer’s pyramid, Wrexham came close to a big upset to add to a long line of them in their history.
The team beat then-English champions Arsenal in the third round in 1992 and also reached the quarter-finals in 1996-97, when they were in the third tier.
This was the biggest occasion since Reynolds and McElhenney, an American actor and director who was the creator of TV show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” took over.
Fans serenaded Reynolds, who was in one of the directors’ boxes and was standing for most of the game, with a chant of “There’s only one Ryan Reynolds” near the end of the match – when Wrexham were 3-2 ahead and looked like completing a win against opponents who were down to 10 men at that point.
Reynolds was seen walking across the field and to the locker room after the final whistle to speak to the players.
And he has a sequel to look forward to: Wrexham and Sheffield United will meet in a replay next month.
Wrexham had beaten another second-tier team, Coventry, in the previous round.
The new Hollywood owners are using Wrexham for a behind-the-scenes TV series called “Welcome To Wrexham,” which is on Disney+.
Reynolds said he hoped to lead Wrexham into the Premier League.
“The plan is now, and has always been, the Premier League,” Reynolds said.
“I can’t really put a date on that. But if it’s theoretically possible to go from fifth division to Premier League, why wouldn’t we do it?”
On a dramatic afternoon of late goals, Liverpool became the latest high-profile club to exit the FA Cup on Sunday as the defending champions conceded a goal in the second minute of stoppage time to lose 2-1 at Brighton in the fourth round.
It’s only January but Liverpool are already out of the FA Cup and League Cup, languishing in ninth place in the Premier League and their only realistic chance of silverware this season is in the Champions League — where a last-16 match-up against Real Madrid awaits next month.
“I feel sorry for the fans … We let them down again,” Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said.
Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma produced a brilliant piece of skill for their winner against Liverpool by feigning a shot to deceive two defenders and then driving a close-range finish into the roof of the net.
Mitoma, who played for Japan at the World Cup, is proving a revelation in his first season at Brighton, scoring or setting up a goal in eight of the team’s last 11 games.
His latest strike earned Brighton a come-from-behind win, backing up a 3-0 thrashing of Liverpool in the Premier League two weeks ago.
This was a closer contest than in the league, with Harvey Elliott’s 30th-minute opener for Liverpool cancelled out by a flicked finish from Brighton defender Lewis Dunk nine minutes later.
Dunk said he knew little about his finish, which came off a speculative shot from Tariq Lamptey from outside the area.
Eleven Premier League teams have now been eliminated before the fifth round. League leaders Arsenal were eliminated by Manchester City on Friday, joining nine other top-flight clubs — including Chelsea and Newcastle — who were ousted in the third round.
“We have to improve, body language, a couple of boys have to do much better,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said.
“But the last game here we couldn’t have won. I think today nobody would have been surprised if we had won the game.”
Brighton were without Moises Caicedo after the Ecuador midfielder publicly declared his desire to leave amid reported interest from Arsenal and Chelsea.
In the day’s other game, Stevenage weren’t able to reproduce their exploits from the third round.
The fourth-tier team that delivered one of the most stunning wins in the last 64 — beating Premier League club Aston Villa away — were beaten 3-1 by second-tier Stoke, for whom Socceroo Harry Souttar was missing with a hip injury.
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