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. Unfortunately, his side could not produce the win to mark the occasion but the 59-year-old Scot said the turgid 0-0 draw was still memorable for him. "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. "It was a bit of a milestone for myself because it was the first game in Europe I'd been in charge of the club." 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." The only downside to the night was an injury to Fabio Aurelio in the first half. "It is an adductor strain for Fabio but it's not too bad," said Dalglish. "That (central midfield) was the last place we wanted an injury but once that had gone that was it." Sparta coach Jozef Chovanec was reasonably satisfied with the performance, considering his side are still on their winter break. "It was certainly was not easy for us today because we had not played a competitive game for two-and-a-half months," he said. "The result could have been potentially a matter of a single mistake but neither team made a mistake. "We had a number of chances and some of those were better than those of Liverpool but both teams played it pretty defensively."
