Slovenia earned a comfortable 1-1 draw in Croatia in the first leg of their playoff to boost their chances of qualifying for next year's Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.
Dado Prso, still in a rich vein of scoring form following the four he scored for Monaco in their 8-3 Champions League victory over Deportivo 10 days ago, gave Croatia the lead with a simple tap-in after only five minutes.
Just when it looked like Croatia were about to push on for a more convincing win, Slovenian striker Ermin Siljak headed the equaliser after 22 minutes. But he will miss the second leg because after picking up a yellow card.
Croatia coach Otto Baric sent on three attacking midfielders at the start of the second half - Milan Rapaic, Giovanni Rosso and Darijo Srna - to boost his side's attack, but to no avail.
In an uninspired Croatian performance their only other scoring chance came in the 32nd minute when Prso's header was stopped by a combination of Slovenian goalkeeper Mladen Dabanovic and a post.
Latvia surprised a Turkey side reduced to 10 men after a 73rd minute red card for defender Emre Asik.
The Latvians, ranked 69th in the world, secured a 1-0 victory over a side who are struggling since finishing third at the 2002 World Cup with a 29th minute strike by Maris Varpakovskis, his fifth of the qualifying campaign.
Though Senol Gunes's men will still expect to qualify, the year is clearly turning sour after his former Group Seven leaders side were pipped to top slot by England.
Along with Asik, Turkey will also be without keeper Rustu Recber and defender Fatih Akyel next week after yellow cards on Saturday, while Latvia will miss defender Valentins Lobanovs.