England was held a scoreless draw by Slovenia in the UEFA European U21 championship, the first of the last nine games of the Young Lions at the final they could not win.
England looked defensively in the opening 10 minutes, and Svit Seslar did not give them time to settle, touching two efforts that were tackled by James Beadle and an acrobatic attempt that marginally sailed over the crossbar.
He then delivered a corner that had flown to Adrian Zeljkovic, whose shot was well refused by Beadle before the goalkeeper of England U21 collected a deflected Tio Cipot strike from the range.
The side of Lee Carsley had their first chance in the 21st minute, with the approval of Lovro Golic that hit Marko Brest and happened to bounce the path of James Mcatee, only for the captain to shoot off-target.
Charlie Cresswell then went wide after a beautifully worked free kick, and Ethan Nwaneri wasted a golden chance after Jonathan Rowe had broke past Brest and drove the ball to the back post.
After the daring strike of Seslar was tipped by Beadle, Harvey Elliott hit the woodwork with a loop -shaped first finish of Elliot Anderson's wegend Pass, and he then curled an attempt on the crossbars for the break.
England – Slovenia match Statsflash score
McATEE was refused by an excellent Martin Turk-Save shortly after the restart, who dripped his sequel wide, and Beadle did right on the other side to deny a toxic shot from Seslar.
McATEE had then left a strike by Mitja Ilenic when it seemed as if he were getting a clear view of the goal, and the subsequent corner resulted in a cross that Rowe could not reach Srdan Kuzmic under pressure.
Carsley went to his couch in search of a winner, but Slovenia remained strong and Elliott could not get a clean band when a chance came.
The header of Jack Hinshelwood was brilliantly tipped by Turk and Cresswell sent his header from the subsequent corner, because England was forced to settle for a draw.
Nevertheless, they are now nine consecutive competitive matches unbeaten to go the top of group B for the German meeting with the Czech Republic later in the afternoon. Slovenia will be more concerned about a lonely point in their name, especially because they have won any of their five games in the final of this competition.
Flash score Man of the match: Martin Turk (Slovenia)