diff --git a/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/Netty41ClientTest.groovy b/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/Netty41ClientTest.groovy
index 9e47ed6c1062..e937779dd614 100644
--- a/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/Netty41ClientTest.groovy
+++ b/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/Netty41ClientTest.groovy
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpMethod
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpVersion
 import io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.test.AgentTestTrait
 import io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.test.base.HttpClientTest
+import io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.test.base.SingleConnection
 import io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.netty.v4_1.client.HttpClientTracingHandler
 import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException
@@ -374,4 +375,9 @@ class Netty41ClientTest extends HttpClientTest implements AgentTestTrait {
       ch.pipeline().addLast("added_in_initializer", new HttpClientCodec())
     }
   }
+
+  @Override
+  SingleConnection createSingleConnection(String host, int port) {
+    return new SingleNettyConnection(host, port)
+  }
 }
diff --git a/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/SingleNettyConnection.java b/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/SingleNettyConnection.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5434cbca1963
--- /dev/null
+++ b/instrumentation/netty/netty-4.1/javaagent/src/test/groovy/SingleNettyConnection.java
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+import io.netty.bootstrap.Bootstrap;
+import io.netty.buffer.Unpooled;
+import io.netty.channel.Channel;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelFuture;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelInitializer;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelOption;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelPipeline;
+import io.netty.channel.EventLoopGroup;
+import io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoopGroup;
+import io.netty.channel.socket.SocketChannel;
+import io.netty.channel.socket.nio.NioSocketChannel;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultFullHttpRequest;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpClientCodec;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderNames;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpMethod;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequest;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpVersion;
+import io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.test.base.SingleConnection;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+
+/*
+Netty does not actually support proper http pipelining and has no way to correlate incoming response
+message with some sent request. This means that without some support from the higher level protocol
+we cannot concurrently send several requests across the same channel. Thus doRequest method of this
+class is synchronised. Yes, it seems kinda pointless, but at least we test that our instrumentation
+does not wreak havoc on Netty channel.
+ */
+public class SingleNettyConnection implements SingleConnection {
+  private final String host;
+  private final int port;
+  private final Channel channel;
+
+  public SingleNettyConnection(String host, int port) {
+    this.host = host;
+    this.port = port;
+    EventLoopGroup group = new NioEventLoopGroup();
+    Bootstrap bootstrap = new Bootstrap();
+    bootstrap
+        .group(group)
+        .channel(NioSocketChannel.class)
+        .option(ChannelOption.CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MILLIS, 10000)
+        .handler(
+            new ChannelInitializer<SocketChannel>() {
+              @Override
+              protected void initChannel(SocketChannel socketChannel) {
+                ChannelPipeline pipeline = socketChannel.pipeline();
+                pipeline.addLast(new HttpClientCodec());
+              }
+            });
+
+    ChannelFuture channelFuture = bootstrap.connect(host, port);
+    channelFuture.awaitUninterruptibly();
+    if (!channelFuture.isSuccess()) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException(channelFuture.cause());
+    } else {
+      channel = channelFuture.channel();
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public synchronized int doRequest(String path, Map<String, String> headers)
+      throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException {
+    CompletableFuture<Integer> result = new CompletableFuture<>();
+
+    channel.pipeline().addLast(new ClientHandler(null, result));
+
+    String url;
+    try {
+      url = new URL("http", host, port, path).toString();
+    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+      throw new ExecutionException(e);
+    }
+
+    HttpRequest request =
+        new DefaultFullHttpRequest(
+            HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpMethod.GET, url, Unpooled.EMPTY_BUFFER);
+    request.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.HOST, host);
+    headers.forEach((k, v) -> request.headers().set(k, v));
+
+    channel.writeAndFlush(request).get();
+    return result.get(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/testing-common/src/main/groovy/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/test/base/SingleConnection.java b/testing-common/src/main/groovy/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/test/base/SingleConnection.java
index d254aa73fe08..a074ced36a60 100644
--- a/testing-common/src/main/groovy/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/test/base/SingleConnection.java
+++ b/testing-common/src/main/groovy/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/test/base/SingleConnection.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
 
 /**
  * Helper class for http client tests which require a single connection.
@@ -24,5 +25,5 @@ public interface SingleConnection {
   String REQUEST_ID_HEADER = "test-request-id";
 
   int doRequest(String path, Map<String, String> headers)
-      throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException;
+      throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException;
 }