The visitors – whose last WC appearance was back in 1986 – fashioned two early openings for Isaac Price and Dan Ballard, with the former seeing his strike saved and the latter sending a towering header wide.
There was then a huge let-off at the other end when David Strelec had the best chance of the match so far, racing on to a through ball and clattering against the near post with a thumping strike.
Shortly after, Dion Charles came close to breaking his year-long drought for Michael O’Neill’s side as he nodded straight at Martin Dúbravka from close range.
Price and George Saville had further chances before the break, although both failed to hit the target, while the hosts once more came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock when Milan Škriniar fizzed a dipping volley from the edge of the area narrowly over the bar.
The Falcons had never lost a home H2H, and they thought they had taken the lead shortly after HT.
Lukáš Haraslín whipped a delicious, low free-kick across the goalkeeper and into the far post, but it was chalked off for offside against Škriniar, who was standing in Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s line of vision.
Minutes later, hosts had another strike ruled out following VAR intervention, as a second sublime Haraslín set piece was this time flicked on by Strelec, only for VAR to spot that the ball had come off his arm on its way past the goalkeeper.
By this stage, it was backs to the wall for Northern Ireland, who had scarcely crossed the halfway line since the break.
The Green and White Army received another let-off when Strelec clipped straight at Peacock-Farrell from 10 yards, and by now were within touching distance of a play-off spot and a first away clean sheet in a WC qualifier since 2017.
However, substitute Bobček popped up to convert on the half-volley from a corner, poking into the back of the net after the goalkeeper came off his line and failed to claim a ball into the box.
As a result, Slovakia claim a fourth win in five, and can still top the group, but they’ll need to beat Germany in their final match to do so.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s night went from bad to worse when Ballard received a second yellow in stoppage time, yet results elsewhere mean the visitors are also guaranteed a play-off in March.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lukáš Haraslín (Slovakia)
