diff --git a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-4.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v4_0/ApacheHttpClientInstrumentation.java b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-4.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v4_0/ApacheHttpClientInstrumentation.java
index 253a22214991..9dd2f6cde429 100644
--- a/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-4.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v4_0/ApacheHttpClientInstrumentation.java
+++ b/instrumentation/apache-httpclient/apache-httpclient-4.0/javaagent/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/apachehttpclient/v4_0/ApacheHttpClientInstrumentation.java
@@ -257,6 +257,9 @@ public static void methodEnter(
         @Advice.Local("otelContext") Context context,
         @Advice.Local("otelScope") Scope scope) {
       Context parentContext = currentContext();
+
+      otelRequest = new ApacheHttpClientRequest(host, request);
+
       if (!instrumenter().shouldStart(parentContext, otelRequest)) {
         return;
       }