Ryan Reynolds goes through a range of emotions during an FA Cup match

Ryan Reynolds went from joy to despair and from ecstasy to desolation.

The unlikely new love of his life – Welsh football club Wrexham – put the movie star on an emotional rollercoaster on Sunday in a thrilling one-minute FA Cup game that ended not quite in the script .

Wrexham, the fifth-tier team bought by Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney for $2.5million in November 2020 on the recommendation of one of their writers, conceded 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 North Wales Racecourse, around 50 miles south of Liverpool, and went through a range of emotions as they that the goals were pouring in at each end.

He’s gotten used to it now.

“I’m so in love with the sport now that I really hate it,” Reynolds, a Canadian-born actor best known for starring in the “Deadpool” films, told the BBC ahead of the game.

“Every game, I go around in circles like a lion in a cage.”

With 71 places between the teams in the English football pyramid, Wrexham came close to a surprise to add to a long line in their history. The team beat then-champions Arsenal in the third round in 1992 and also reached the quarter-finals in the 1996-97 season when they were third-tier.

It was the biggest occasion since Reynolds and McElhenney, an American actor and director who was the creator of the TV show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” took over.

Fans serenaded Reynolds, who was in one of the directors’ boxes and on his feet for most of the match, with a chant of “There’s only one Ryan Reynolds” near the end of the match.

Wrexham were leading 3-2 at the time and looked set for a win against a down to 10-man opponent when Canadian-born Daniel Jebbison was shown a red card in the 71st minute for sending off a Wrexham player.

The 19-year-old Sheffield United striker is the youngest of three brothers (along with Micah and Jonathan) who went through the ANB Futbol academy in King City, Ont., before the family left Milton, Ont. Ontario, for England. boys’ football dream.

Jebbison has previously played for England’s youth teams but is eligible for Canada.

Reynolds was seen walking across the pitch and into the locker room after the final whistle to speak to the players.

And it has a sequel to look forward to: Wrexham and Sheffield United will meet in a replay next month. Wrexham beat another second tier side, Coventry, in the previous round.

Hollywood’s new 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 to the Premier League.

“The plan now is, and always has been, the Premier League,” said Reynolds. “I can’t really put a date on that. But if it’s theoretically possible to move from the Fifth Division to the Premier League, why wouldn’t we?

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Steve Douglas, The Associated Press

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