Source: SKY_Sports
Scharner concedes Europa hunt
Wigan Athletic's Paul Scharner has admitted defeat in The Latics' push for a European spot. Three consecutive defeats against Everton, Arsenal and Blackburn have resulted in Wigan slipping from seventh place down to 11th, with Fulham replacing them in the final Europa League qualifying spot.Scharner has now conceded that Europe may be a step too far for the club this year, but still wants a strong finish."We don't want to finish like this," Scharner told the Wigan Observer."I don't think there is any more chance of getting a European place now."But we still have five games and plenty of points to play for."New targetThe Austrian moved back to centre-half after two months in midfield for the Blackburn defeat and has revealed manager Steve Bruce has set the players a new target."We set ourselves a new target last week. In the first season in the Premier League we reached 51 points and we now want to top that."Of the five games left, one is against Manchester United, which is very difficult. But the others are winnable."There are 15 points left to fight for and hopefully we can finish as high up the table as possible."RugbyScharner feels that Wigan's next opponents, Bolton, could prove to be a similar proposition to Blackburn, but will be hoping to fare better."We need to bounce back from the Blackburn defeat."Saturday's game against Bolton could be quite similar to Blackburn as they are quite direct."At Blackburn we allowed them to play their game and hit long balls at us, almost like a game of rugby."It's not the way we like to play football and it was difficult to play against."Scharner has blamed international breaks and FA Cup weekends for Wigan's demise as he feel the time off hindered Wigan and slowed their momentum."The main target for us at the start of the season was to avoid relegation and we reached that quite early."But the rest of the season has been disjointed. Since the start of 2009 we've had lots of breaks between games and as a result you lose rhythm."