Dalglish savours landmark

Kenny Dalglish was frustrated his European managerial debut for Liverpool ended in a turgid goalless draw against Sparta Prague but he insisted it would live long in his memory nevertheless.

The Scot had waited 9,394 days to get the chance to lead the Reds in continental competition as the ban on English clubs after the Heysel disaster had denied him first time round as boss.

"It is special but every time you go into the dugout for this club it is special," he said. "It is a club with fantastic tradition and pride and to get a first opportunity to take the club that I served as player and manager before into Europe was fantastic. It was an honour for me because of the history this club has in Europe."

Sparta created the best of the few chances in the first leg of the last-32 tie but the game was disjointed throughout.

"It was a difficult game for us," added Dalglish. "We would rather have been more offensive but circumstances dictated the way we played with the players we had available.

"Nil-nil is not the best result we could have got but it is not the worst either.

"Next week you can anticipate it being a different game."

The 59-year-old Scot insisted there were plenty of positives to take out of the trip.

"There was a lot of value in the game. Soto (Kyrgiakos) got a game, Danny Wilson got a game and David Ngog got a start up front. Joe Cole was back in as well," he added.

"The game in some ways served its purpose because the lads will gain great benefit from that and the young lads (from the youth team who travelled) have gained experience."