Qualification from group out of their hands as Wigan let it slip

Wigan’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the Europa League were dealt a major blow with a 2-1 home defeat by Zulte Waregem last night.

Junior Malanda’s 88th-minute winner means qualification from Group D is now out of Wigan’s hands.

Wigan will now need to beat Maribor in Slovenia in their final group game next month and hope Zulte lose to Rubin.

The main sense of frustration for Owen Coyle and his players will be that the damage was largely self-inflicted.

Leon Barnett opened the scoring in the seventh minute and the hosts had no shortage of opportunities to extend their lead.

But they could not take any of them and in the 37th minute they shot themselves in the foot by allowing Zulte to equalise.

Loose play from Wigan set the visitors away on a break, and Lee Nicholls compounded the error by dropping Thorgan Hazard’s – brother of Chelsea’s Eden – shot into his own net.

Wigan were hit with a sucker punch in the 88th minute as Malanda took aim from the edge of the box and found the top corner.