Duran can be second Maeda for Celtic - O'Neill

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill believes new signing Camilo Duran has similar attributes to influential forward Daizen Maeda.

The Colombian forward, who joined for an undisclosed fee from Qarabag last week, scored within five minutes of being introduced as a substitute in Celtic's 4-1 friendly defeat by Sporting on Tuesday.

O'Neill has been quoted as saying he has resigned himself to losing Maeda this summer, but he sees similarities between the Japan forward and his only summer signing to date.

"I'm delighted with him," O'Neill told club media when asked about Duran.

"I didn't think that he got a great deal of service with the changes that we made during the course of the game. Overall, I think he will be a really good acquisition for us.

"We talked about Maeda being able to close players down. He might be the second Maeda in that aspect. He certainly has a willingness to do so.

"Once or twice it looked as if he was just going to break away and do some things during the course of the time that he was on. But, overall, I was very pleased with him. He wants to do well, he genuinely does."

Duran's goal made it 1-1 at the Estadio Algarve, but Sporting scored three times in the closing stages for a comfortable victory.

O'Neill also fielded several youngsters in the second half and the Northern Irishman was pleased despite the result against last season's Champions League quarter-finalists.

"First of all, it's a great experience for some of the young boys to be playing against a side like that," he said. "But secondly, and the senior players too, we all can learn from it.

"Learn just fundamental things - closing players down, trying to get there first, recovering quicker, things like that.

"But that's all part of pre-season. I've been here before so many times. Sometimes you get carried away with pre-season results if things have gone well and vice versa in many aspects."

Champions Celtic have two more friendlies this month, against Middlesbrough and AC Milan, before they return to competitive action against Dundee in the Scottish Premiership on 3 August.