Ethan Pinnock believes that Brentford beat ‘the best team in the world’ at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Bees rounded off their second Premier League campaign with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City, Pinnock netting a late goal as the Bees completed a famous double over the champions.
“They’ve been the best team in the world this season,” said Pinnock, speaking on the same day that his new four-year contract was announced.
“We had our tactics, we had our game plan, and we stuck to it. On the day, with the crowd behind us, we managed to get the win.
“They’ve got two world-class players for each position, but we got on the front foot from restarts and from throw-ins. We went man-for-man a lot of the time and did our jobs very well.”
Pinnock’s goal came five minutes from time. Raya curled a free-kick down the right touchline for Kevin Schade to gather. The German forward showed great pace to round Sergio Gomez and fire a cross to the back post for Bryan Mbeumo to knock down to the unmarked Pinnock 10 yards out. With the outside of his foot, the Jamaican international slotted the ball into the bottom corner and the Gtech erupted.
“I saw the ball come in over my head, and I saw Bryan going for it,” Pinnock continued. “I think he was going to try and score, but I screamed at him to head it back to me! I saw a couple of players on the line and slotted it in.”
Pinnock paid tribute to captain Pontus Jansson, who addressed the crowd ahead of his return to boyhood club Malmo this summer.
“He’s been a big character,” said Pinnock. “His influence over the team – how he tries to set high standards for us – has been so important and we’ve lived up to it.
“We’ve worked hard day in, day out. He’s really grown into his role as a captain and leader and we’re all going to miss him.”