of the UEFA Cup Newcastle United proved the stronger team. In 1997 Halmstads BK celebrated their third championship title after 3–0 in the last game against Ljungskile SK, Mats Lilienberg, now in Halmstads BK, became league top goalscorer with 14 goals, alongside Christer Mattiasson, IF Elfsborg, and Dan Sahlin, Örebro SK. 1998 saw the club end up in 8th place and the UEFA Champions League adventured ended quickly after defeat with 3–2 in total against Litex Lovech, from Bulgaria, in the first qualifying round, own product Freddie Ljungberg was sold to Arsenal F.C. for 40 million SEK. A poor start of the 1999 season didn't prevent Halmstads BK from fighting for the league title until the second last match, the club had to be satisfied with 3rd place and Lilla Silvret. Halmstads BK started the new millennium with taking their fourth Allsvenskan title, they also reached second round in the UEFA Cup after defeating S.L. Benfica, but then TSV 1860 München proved too strong, Halmstad also became the last team to win the Von Rosen Trophy as it was revealed that Clarence von Rosen was a Nazi sympathiser, it was replaced in 2001 with the Lennart Johansson Trophy. Stefan Selakovic became league top goalscorer with 15 goals as the club ended 7th place, R.S.C. Anderlecht was too strong in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round and then Sporting Clube de Portugal in the second round of the UEFA Cup, Tom Prahl left the club for Allsvenskan rival Malmö FF and was replaced by former Swedish international player Jonas Thern. 2002 started extremely bad for the club as after 15 rounds it lay dead last, but a spell of 11 games undefeated saw the club get saved from relegation. During the 2003 season Halmstad had a chance for a medal until the end of the season where the club lost 7 of the 8 last games and ended up in 9th place, Jonas Thern decided to leave the club during the autumn and assistant manager Janne Andersson became new manager. Halmstads BK was 36 minutes from winning their fifth Allsvenskan title after leading Allsvenskan most of the season, but only managed 1–1 against IFK Göteborg in the last game, while Malmö FF, on the same point prior to the last match, managed to win with 1–0 against IF Elfsborg, Markus Rosenberg, on loan from Malmö FF, became league top goalscorer