England needed a fine display from goalkeeper Joe Hart to scrape a goalless draw away to Slovenia in their 2018 World Cup qualification clash in Group F.
Starting without Wayne Rooney in caretaker boss Gareth Southgate's second game in charge, England suffered their first setback after winning their opening two games.
Slovenia had a golden opportunity on 10 minutes to take the lead when Eric Dier's poor backpass allowed Roman Bezjak through and, although Hart came out to make a positive intervention, England failed to clear and Jasmin Kurtic curled a shot against the post.
The hosts threatened again at the start of the second half as they broke through the England defence, but Josip Ilicic picked out Theo Walcott with a poor cutback. Hart was then forced to make two saves in quick succession, superbly clawing a Kurtic header against the underside of the crossbar on the second occasion.
Rooney was eventually introduced as a replacement for Dele Alli on 73 minutes and England had chances through Danny Rose and Daniel Sturridge soon afterwards, while the Manchester United forward also curled an effort just wide from the edge of the area, but England failed to score.
Also in Group F, Slovakia secured their first win with a 3-0 home victory that dented Scotland's hopes of reaching the World Cup finals.
Robert Mak fired Slovakia ahead on 18 minutes when Scotland keeper David Marshall palmed a Marek Hamsik header into his path.
They doubled their advantage on 56 minutes when Mak was allowed space in the area to set up a shot before firing past Marshall, and Adam Nemec headed in a third on 68 minutes.
Scotland, who picked up four points from their meetings with Malta and Lithuania, remain ahead of Slovakia in the table after their defeats to England and Slovenia.
Meanwhile, Lithuania picked up their first win in Group F as they defeated Malta 2-0.
Hosts Lithuania, having drawn with both Slovenia and Scotland, took the lead through Fiodor Cernych's goal in the 76th minute, and after Malta's Jonathan Caruana was sent off eight minutes from time, Arvydas Novikovas sent in a penalty to seal the result.
Quickfire first-half goals from Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira were enough to maintain Germany's 100 percent start in Group C, as they ran out 2-0 winners against Northern Ireland in Hanover.
Draxler opened the scoring on 13 minutes with a low drive from the edge of the box, before Khedira doubled the world champions' advantage four minutes later with a header.
Ilkay Gundogan, a half-time substitute for Mesut Ozil, made his first appearance for Die Mannschaft since a friendly against France on Nov. 13, 2015, after almost a year out through injury.
Norway left it late to beat San Marino 4-1, goals from Joshua King and substitutes Martin Samuelsen and Adama Diomande saving their blushes in Oslo.
Before that, San Marino were on course for an unlikely draw after Mattia Stefanelli's 54th minute strike -- the tiny Republic's first away goal in a World Cup qualifier since 2001 -- cancelled out an 11th-minute Aldo Simoncini own goal.
In the other game in Group C, Azerbaijan continued their impressive unbeaten start to qualifying with a goalless draw away at Czech Republic.
That result leaves them second in Group C with seven points from three games, two points behind leaders Germany and three ahead of Northern Ireland ahead of a trip to Windsor Park in November.
In Group E, Robert Lewandowski scored in the 95th minute to give Poland a 2-1 win over Armenia, breaking the hearts of the minnows who played a man down for over an hour in Warsaw.
Armenia's hopes seemed slim when Gael Andonian picked up his second yellow card in a four-minute span just after the half-hour mark, and a Hrayr Mkoyan own goal -- under pressure from Lewandowski -- put Poland ahead three minutes after the break.
But two minutes later Marcos Pizzelli scored an equaliser for Armenia with a glancing header from a set piece, and the hosts waited until the final moments to find the winner as Lewandowski headed home at the far post following a free kick.
Fatos Beciraj scored the only goal as Montenegro moved to the top of Group E with a 1-0 win at Denmark.
The goal came in the 32nd minute as Stevan Jovetic played in Beciraj with a lofted through ball and the striker hit it on the half-volley to put his side ahead.
Montenegro have two wins and a draw from their opening three games to top the group on seven points, ahead of Poland on goal difference and two clear of Romania, who were held to a goalless draw away to Kazakhstan.
Bogdan Stancu drilled two low efforts wide during the first half and created the game's best opening three minutes from time, when goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov fumbled the Genclerbirligi forward's cross.
Romanian TV network DolceSport reported that money and other objects had been stolen from players and staff at the visiting team's hotel before the match.