Maribor won its 14th domestic title during the 2016–17 season. As the national champions, Maribor represented Slovenia in the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, where the club reached the group stages for the third time in their history, having previously appeared in the same stage of the competition in 1999 and 2014. Maribor competed in Group E, along with Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, and Liverpool. The club obtained three points in six matches after drawing with Sevilla at home and against Spartak twice with all three matches finishing 1–1. Their 7–0 defeat to Liverpool in the third matchday was the club's heaviest home defeat in European competitions, and their second highest European defeat overall. During the same season, however, Maribor failed to win a major trophy for the first time since the 2007–08 season, losing the league title to Olimpija on head-to-head rules after finishing with the same number of points. Olimpija also eliminated Maribor in the quarter-finals of the national cup, and therefore Maribor failed to reach the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since the 2002–03 season. In 2018–19, Maribor won its 15th national title under the guidance of Darko Milanič, who won his 6th league title with the club, becoming the most successful manager in the Slovenian top division. In the same season, Maribor failed to win their fifth "double" after losing the 2019 Slovenian Cup final against their arch-rivals Olimpija. At the start of the 2019–20 season, Maribor reached the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League play-offs, where they were eliminated by Ludogorets Razgrad on away goals. A few weeks later, Maribor lost in the round of 16 of the 2019–20 Slovenian Cup against a second division side Koper. Maribor was never before eliminated from the Slovenian cup by a team outside the top division; it was also the first time since 1995–96 that Maribor got eliminated so early in the competition.