#5 Wigan Athletic 2013-14
Wigan Athletic would have the greatest year in their history in terms of silverware at the 2012-13 season, capturing the FA Cup for the first time with a victory over Manchester City in the final. However, a mere three days ater that triumph, relegation from the English Premier League would be confirmed with a defeat to Arsenal.
The saving grace for next season would be an automatic place in the Europa League group stages owing to that Cup win – the first ever foray in to Europe for the Manchester-based club.
Wigan were handed a group comprising of Rubin Kazan, Maribor and Belgian side Zulte Waregem. The English second tier side started well and were unbeaten after the first three sets of matches, beating Maribor and drawing the other two games, sitting second on the table.
However, the customary away defeat at Rubin was followed by a surprise home loss to a Thorgan Hazard-inspired Zulte and Wigan found themselves in a three-way tussle involving Zulte and Maribor to claim second place in the group behind Rubin.
Wigan could have qualified with an away victory on the final match day at bottom side Maribor, provided Zulte lost at home to Rubin. A Jordi Gomez penalty put the Latics in pole position in Slovenia only to see Maribor equalise within two minutes.
Zulte conceded two late goals to lose their match against Rubin, meaning that if there was a winner in the Maribor - Wigan match, that side would progress to the next round. There would indeed be a winner at the Ljudski vrt stadium, but it wouldn’t be Wigan.
Zelijko Filipovic would give Maribor the lead and despite having just 36% possession, the Slovenians would hold out for the rest of the bad-tempered match which would see both sides finish with ten men.
The Slovenians progressed despite starting the night in last place and Wigan were left to rue their insipid performances in the second half of the group stages which saw them lose all three games.
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