Jurgen Klopp emerged "absolutely okay" with Liverpool's 0-0 draw against Bayern Munich despite admitting a measure of frustration with the subdued display.
Bayern successfully blunted the Premier League side's star-studded attack to register a valuable clean sheet at Anfield in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah were among the players to pass up opportunities in what was a 90 minutes largely free of incident, with Liverpool registering two shots on target and the visitors zero.
Last season's beaten finalists will now have to secure a result at Allianz Arena to advance to the quarter-finals, a scenario that does not faze Klopp.
"We can play better, we should play better," Klopp said of the performance in a post-match interview with BT Sport.
"It was like this. It was a big fight. I can't remember chances in the second half for both sides.
"The tie is not over. We had to create a basis which we can use in the second leg. From a result point of view it's absolutely okay.
"It's not a dream result but it's a good one and we can work with that.
3 - This is just the second time that Liverpool have played out three straight goalless draws in all competitions against a particular opponent at Anfield, also doing so against Tottenham Hotspur between October 1969 and December 1971 (four straight 0-0s). Maiden. pic.twitter.com/KsrjuJ9EPH
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 19, 2019
"A lot of things were really good. We played against an outstanding side and each mistake you make can cause a big problem. I'm not over the moon but I'm completely okay with the game."
Liverpool's major positive was escaping unscathed from a match which Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren missed through suspension and injury respectively.
The makeshift pairing of Joel Matip and Fabinho dealt comfortably with an anonymous Robert Lewandowski and Klopp commended their efforts, while reserving particular praise for hard-working captain Jordan Henderson.
"First off, a clean sheet without the big man [Van Dijk] which not a lot of people would have expected that, so that was very good," the German said.
"Defending in general was good. It was a fantastic game from Hendo.
"A lot of things were really good. We played against an outstanding side and each mistake you make can cause a big problem. I'm not over the moon but I'm completely okay with the game."
