Wrexham co-owner and Hollywood actor, Ryan Reynolds, chats with a mascot before the match against Chelsea.
Wrexham co-owner and Hollywood actor, Ryan Reynolds, chats with a mascot before the match against Chelsea.
The last time Wrexham met Chelsea, in the old Division Two 44 years ago, Frank Carrodus scored the only goal to give the bottom club Wrexham an unlikely victory. The match was watched by 3,935 people at the Racecourse Ground; Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty were not among their number. The most exotic names in the stadium that day were probably Chelsea winger Peter Rhoades-Brown and Wrexham keeper Eddie Niedzwecki.
Times change, football changes and tonight the two teams will meet in a Hollywood-adjacent blockbuster: it’s being shown live on two different channels in the UK alone. It’s Wrexham’s biggest game since Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club six years ago, a chance to take a major scalp and reach their first FA Cup quarter-final since 1997.
The script is written, an unashamedly cheesy one at that, but Chelsea plan to make a few last-minute edits.
Kick off 5.45pm.