RARE FOOTAGE OF WHAT DAIZEN MAEDA DID BEFORE COMING ON VS SPORTING EMERGE AND HAS THROWN FANS INTO SERIOUS QUESTION

THEY say what goes on tour stays on tour.

But Brendan Rodgers wants his Celtic squad to take something home with them from their training trip to Portugal.

That’s a togetherness and camaraderie they’ve forged, to set them up for the season.

Rodgers last night watched his side get a good 2-0 win over Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon in Faro.

What pleased him more than anything from the week away, though, was the team spirit forged OFF the park.

Reo Hatate’s second-half penalty and Luke McCowan’s cool finish only enhanced the feel-good factor around the group as they gear up for the new campaign.

Rodgers said: “It’s been an excellent trip for us.

“It seems like a long time ago since we were in Cork, but coming out to here, it’s been a pleasure to get a lot of good work in.

“What’s very important is the camaraderie and the spirit that you create when you’re away on pre-season tours.

‘This has been everything that we’ve wanted, and we want to finished off with another really good game.

“It’s always about timing. You’re pushing the players to their very maximum.

“Physically the guys are improving.

“I think we still have a way to go, but there’s absolutely no doubt before that physical and mental sharpness is there within our game.

“These early moments of pre-season, they’re all about the tests, physically and mentally and the guys are coping really well.”

Celtic played some really good stuff against the Portuguese champions.

There was just something missing in the final third in the first-half.

Adam Idah may see himself as a No9 capable of scoring 30-plus goals for Rodgers in the season ahead.

But his first-half finishing didn’t back that up.

The Irishman should have scored inside five minutes from a Daizen Maada cut-back, but he couldn’t sort his feet out.

Then in 25 minutes Kieran Tierney picked out the striker inside the six-yard box with a sensational cross.

But again Idah failed to make the right connection.

Rodgers was standing out on the touchline as both chances came and went. And each time he turned around to his coaches on the bench in frustration.

Idah has so many qualities with his stats last season decent. He hit 20 goals.

And it’s not like this was a big Champions League play-off.

But one of those is just around the corner and you can’t help think that Celtic will have signed a new goalscorer by then.

It was maybe always the plan to take Idah off at half-time and replace him with youngster Johnny Kenny.

But he’ll be gutted he didn’t make the most of his night.

Kenny made an immediate impact as he continues to impress.

He was the man tripped inside the box at the incident which saw Celts score from the penalty spot in 47 minutes.

It was Kenny’s first involvement with Hatate beating keeper Matheus Reis with a blasted spot-kick.

Idah wasn’t the only one who could have done better in front of goal before the break.

Daizen Maeda was one-on-one with the goalkeeper after Callum McGregor played the through-ball of the night.

Benjamin Nygren also passed up a decent opportunity to hit the net.

The midfielder had a really good game, though.

His touch and awareness was impressive, with the Swede showing a good turn of pace took him from middle to front in the blink of an eye.

Sporting will feel unfortunate they didn’t score past either Kasper Schmeichel in the first-half or Viljami Sinisalo in the second.

Skipper Morten Hjulmand came closest with a drilled shot which smashed off the post after 57 minutes.

That was around a spell in the game when Sporting looked like they’d get the next goal.

But Celts were soon 2-0 in front.

Kid Kenny led a brilliant break and fed a neat pass to McCowan bust a gut to get forward, calmly stepped inside before slotting home.

Overall, Rodgers was delighted with the effort he got from his squad throughout their Portuguese camp.

He added: “The facilities were excellent.

“We’ve shown the players that we want to bring them to top-quality facilities and that has been really good.

“The game against Estrela the other day, of course we want to win every single game that we play but getting the players the minutes in their legs and getting young players game-time was important.

‘Then there was the connection with the visit to Estádio Nacional on Monday.

“That was a really poignant moment, I felt, for us to take the players to the place where real history was created.

“It’s a symbol for the guys of what they have to live up to and what they have to work towards every single day.

“So I’m really pleased with the on-field application.

“And off the field, the bonding socially has been really good and people are connecting well.”

Celtic take on Newcastle United in a glamour friendly clash at Parkhead on Saturday.