Wigan Athletic turned in an impressive defensive performance as they held their hosts Zulte Waregem to a 0-0 draw in their Europa League encounter.

Owen Coyle's side began the match brightly and went close in the fourth minute when James McArthur fired a powerful shot narrowly over from the edge of the box.

Jordi Gomez and Nick Powell got into good shooting positions soon after, but both sliced their efforts off-target.

The Latics enjoyed the better possession during the opening 30 minutes and almost took the lead when Gomez picked out Grant McCann in the box, but his effort was deflected wide.

The hosts began to come into the game and with 10 minutes remaining in the half, Thorgan Hazard's shot was deflected behind for a corner.

Two minutes later Waregem came closest to breaking the deadlock when James McClean headed a corner against his own crossbar.

Scott Carson was called into action just before the break when he saved a powerful shot from Ibrahima Conte after McCann had been dispossessed by Hazard.

Wigan should have gone ahead shortly after the interval when Ryan Shotton poked the ball just wide of the target.

The hosts then missed an excellent opportunity to break the deadlock when Jens Naessens crossed for Habib Habibou, who could not get a toe to the ball.

Hazard continued to look menacing and nearly broke the deadlock after collecting the ball on the edge of the box before firing a shot just wide of Carson's post.

It was then Junior Malanda's turn to waste an opportunity as he headed wide from a corner despite being left totally unmarked.

The Latics nearly hit back when the ball fell to James Perch, who curled a shot towards the bottom corner that was stopped by a good save from Sammy Bossut.

It then took a great save from Carson to keep out a stinging low shot from Raphael Caceres as Wigan looked to keep Waregem out in the final 20 minutes of the game.

In the final minutes it looked as though Waregem would grab the goal they had been pushing for, but for a brilliant piece of defending from McCann when he threw himself in the way of the ball to stop Karel D'Haene from scoring an almost certain goal.