Maribor and thus secured their seventh consecutive title. Financial difficulties (2004–2008) The 2003–04 Slovenian Cup was the last trophy won by Maribor before the club declined. They failed to win their eighth consecutive league title in 2003–04 after losing to Mura in the final round of the season, losing the title to Gorica. The following season, Maribor finished seventh in the league and played in the relegation group, which is still their lowest ever finish in Slovenian football. Between 2004 and 2008, the club was struggling with financial difficulties and the disbandment of the club was seriously considered at one point. Due to debt, which at one point reached over €3 million, the club could not afford to buy new players. As a consequence, the first team consisted mostly of youth team players together with a couple of foreign players brought to the club as free agents. In the fall of 2006, the club changed leadership, and it was not until January 2011 that the club announced that the debt had been paid in full. Despite the debt, Maribor managed to defeat Villarreal 3–2 on aggregate, a club that played in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League only a couple of months earlier, in the third round of the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup. UEFA recognizes Maribor as one of the winners of the competition. However, the trophy itself was awarded only to Newcastle United. The next year, Maribor was eliminated from the 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup by Hajduk Kula. After winning the first match 2–0, Maribor suffered a heavy 5–0 defeat away in Serbia, which is still described today as one of the club's most unexpected defeats. In this period, Maribor also lost two consecutive Slovenian cup finals (2007 and 2008), and never finished higher than third in the league. Beginning of the golden era with Zahovič and Tavares (2008–2013) Before the 2007–08 season, former Slovenian international Zlatko Zahovič was appointed sports director of Maribor, which marked the beginning of the golden era of the club. In 2008, Darko Milanič and Marcos Tavares were brought to Maribor. The former became the most successful manager in the history of Maribor, and the latter the club's all-time top goalscorer in all competitions. In May 2008, the club reopened the Ljudski vrt stadium, which underwent a major reconstruction. The first match played at the renovated stadium was a league match against Nafta