Brentford Head Coach, Thomas Frank has hailed an “incredible” league double over Manchester City.
Having defeated Man City away at the Etihad Stadium in their final game before the 2022 FIFA World Cup break in November, Ethan Pinnock’s 85th minute half-volley winner secured a 1-0 home win over the reigning champions on the final day of the 2022-23 season.
The victory also meant that Brentford were the first team to acheive the double over Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens in all competitions this season, as the Bees finished ninth and missed out on UEFA Europa Conference League qualification by just two points.
“We couldn’t have written it better,” said Frank post-match on Brentford’s league double over City in only their second season in the Premier League.
On missing out on European qualification, Frank added: “You could say that we just couldn’t sneak into a European place, but, hey, we did our part so there’s nothing to complain about. It was just incredible.”
Guardiola though had made seven changes to his City line-up which Frank acknowledged but the Dane iterated that the visitors “still had some top Premier League players out there,” yet his Bees still managed to beat “an unbelievable team” irrespective of oppositional quality.
Frank also was aware that if Man City go on to win FA Cup and Champions League titles, Brentford would be the only team to beat a team which claimed three titles in a single season.
Reflecting on that possibility, Frank said: “I think that the fans will like the narrative that, if they go on to win the treble, we’ll have beaten the treble winners twice.”
Although many teams would celebrate a ninth-placed finish in only their second Premier League campaign, Frank is already looking ahead to next season but iterated that fans should saviour this moment nevertheless.
Explaining why fans deserved to enjoy this season’s success whilst focusing on next season, Frank commented: “I think this win and this season is worthwhile celebrating. Finishing ninth in the best league in the world, as Brentford, is fantastic. I really hope that the fans enjoyed that.
“We’ll do everything we can to come back stronger. Of course, we respect this league and we know it’s crazy, so we know it will be difficult to come back stronger than this.
“But if you don’t try it, then nothing will happen.”
We beat “the best team in the world this season,”
Match winner, Pinnock applauded his team for beating “the best team in the world this season,” as he praised his teammates for sticking to Frank’s game plan.
Reflecting on how Brentford managed to do the league double, Pinnock added: “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.”
“I saw the ball come in over my head, and I saw Bryan going for it,” commented Pinnock on Kevin Schade’s cross from David Raya’s curled free-kick up the right flank, which Bryan Mbeumo managed to collect at the back post.
Pinnock however thought Mbeumo would try to score but explained why he managed to instead score the winner, as he said: “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.”