Liverpool's Stefan Bajcetic (L) protests a yellow card during his side's loss to Brighton, while Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds reacts to his side's dramatic draw. Photos / AP, Getty
Liverpool's Stefan Bajcetic (L) protests a yellow card during his side's loss to Brighton, while Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds reacts to his side's dramatic draw. Photos / AP, Getty
Liverpool have become the latest high-profile club to exit the FA Cup as the defending champions conceded a goal in the second minute of stoppage time to lose 2-1 at Brighton in the fourth round on Monday.
Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma produced a brilliant piece of skill for the winner by feigning a shot to deceive two defenders and then driving a close-range finish into the roof of the net. It earned Brighton a come-from-behind win, which backed up a 3-0 thrashing of Liverpool in the Premier League two weeks ago.
Liverpool came close to winning a quadruple of major trophies last season, triumphing in both domestic cups, losing the Champions League final to Real Madrid and finishing second to Manchester City in the Premier League by a point.
It’s only January but the Reds are out of the FA Cup and League Cup, ninth in the league and its only realistic chance of silverware this season is in the Champions League — where a last-16 matchup against Madrid awaits next month.
“We need to start winning games — it’s easy to say but hard to do,” Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said. “This season has been nowhere near good enough.
“I feel sorry for the fans, the way we’re putting on a show for them. We let them down again.”
Premier League leader Arsenal was eliminated by Manchester City on Saturday, joining nine other top-flight clubs — including Chelsea and Newcastle — who were ousted in the third round.
Brighton was without Moises Caicedo after the Ecuador midfielder publicly declared his desire to leave amid reported interest from Arsenal and Chelsea.
And it was a closer contest than in the league, with Harvey Elliott’s 30th-minute opener for Liverpool canceled 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.
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.
“He’s come from nowhere,” Dunk said. “We’re just lucky to have him in our team at the moment.”
Wrexham fail to convert Hollywood comeback
Ryan Reynolds went from joy to despair, and punch-the-air ecstasy to desolation.
The unlikely new love of his life — Welsh football club Wrexham — put the movie star on an emotional roller coaster Monday in a thrill-a-minute FA Cup match that had an ending not quite on script.
Wrexham, the fifth-tier team bought by Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney for US$2.5 million (NZ$3.86m) 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 Racecourse Ground in north Wales, about 45 kilometres south of Liverpool, and went through a whole range of emotions as the goals poured in at either end.
Wrexham co-owner, actor Ryan Reynolds, arrives with his daughter before the match. Photo / AP
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.
With 71 places between the teams in English football’s pyramid, Wrexham came close to a big upset to add to a long line in its history. The team beat then-English champion Arsenal in the third round in 1992 and also reached the quarterfinals in the 1996-97 season, when it was 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 was 3-2 ahead and looked like completing a win against an opponent that was down to 10 men at that point.
Wrexham's Tom O'Connor (centre) celebrates scoring against Sheffield United. Photo / AP
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 beat 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 hopes 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?”
