Manager Dalglish's Liverpool side are now unbeaten in their past seven matches

Kenny Dalglish admitted that Liverpool lacked attacking threat after drawing 0-0 at Sparta Prague in the first leg of their Europa League last 32 tie.

Dalglish saw his side extend their unbeaten run to seven matches in his first European match as their manager.

But he was not fully satisfied, saying: "We'd rather be more offensive than we were. Obviously next week [the second leg] we'd anticipate a different game."

Yet he described his return to European football as "fantastic".

"My first opportunity to be in Europe as manager - it was fantastic and brought back fond memories," he said.

Sparta created the best of the few chances in a drab match as Glen Johnson failed to make the most of the best opportunity for Liverpool who were without ineligible striker Luis Suarez and captain Steven Gerrard on a cold night in Prague.

"It was a difficult game for us," added 59-year-old Dalglish.

You'd like the away goal but I'd say it's advantage us Jamie Carragher

"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.

"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. 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."

Veteran defender Jamie Carragher agreed with his manager's assessment.

"A goalless draw's always a decent result," he said. "You'd like the away goal but I'd say it's advantage us.

"We've been scoring some goals recently and we haven't done that tonight but in Europe it's slightly different, we're quite pleased with a goalless draw and it was good experience for a few players."

Sparta manager Jozef Chovanec said he was relieved that after such a long period of inactivity for his side that they had come away on level terms.

"It wasn't easy, we hadn't played in competition for two months, but we tried to do our best," he said. "The result would have been a matter of a single mistake, but neither team made one.

"The game was dominated by defence. It was hard to score."

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