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LEIGH Griffiths saw off another challenge to his penalty prowess in Eibar last night - and this time he bravely backed it up.

The Celtic striker’s hat-trick earned the Hoops a 4-1 win in a fraught and feisty friendly against the La Liga minnows.

But he needs to bat off another of his team-mates trying to cut his spot-kick grass to grab the first of them.

After Stefan Johansen undermining him into a miss in midweek, this time Nir Bitton asked the striker if he was OK to take it.

Griffiths kept his cool, though - and this time he smashed home sweetly.

The game, played for the 75th anniversary of the Basque country club, turned out to be a worthwhile exercise for boss Ronny Deila, despite question marks being raised of how wise it was taking it between Champions League qualifiers.

He stuck by his vow to field a strong side, only Craig Gordon and Mikael Lustig excused duties from midweek.

That mean a chance to give keeper Logan Bailly his first appearance, and the former Borussia OH Leuven look the part, saving a spot-kick and distributing the ball well.

Starting Griffiths up front with Nadir Ciftci off, Virgil van Dijk was also stretching his legs ahead of his comeback from European suspension on Wednesday alongside Dedryck Boyata.

That also meant a move to left back for Charlie Mulgrew, a possible precursor to him taking Emilio Izaguirre’s place in midweek after the Honduran’s shaky show against Stjarnan.

And if Deila wanted it competitive, he got it. In the first five minutes Eibar centre mid Eddy Sylvestre had laid out Nir Bitton with a thudding elbow-led challenge and Julen Iriarte twice got skipper Scott Brown irked with a couple of late and deliberate digs.

To be fair, it’s exactly the kind of test they needed after their cobweb-strewn show on Wednesday.

Eibar - relegated after finishing 18th in la Liga, reprieved after Elche were sent down for tax irregularities in their place, and now hanging by a thread awaiting their rivals’ appeal - weren't worst.

But once the pageantry and the pomp was done before kick off, one theme they couldn't lose was a decent chance being passed up though - and Nadir Ciftci still failed to break his duck, despite Leigh Griffiths sticking a great cross flush on his forehead six yards out, heading straight at the keeper.

Van Dijk matched him, squirting a free volley past from the same distance from a wonderful Mulgrew deep free kick.

Eibar’s spot kick came in 25 minutes, Boyata sliding in to deny Nieto’s shot at point blank range. The handball shout look harshly judged, considering the proximity of the impact - but Bailly bailed his fellow Belgian out with the save.

The stopper repaid the favour five minutes later, however, when the keeper lost the place at the edge of the box, gifting Endika Arandilla a lobbed shot which Boyata superbly scooped off the line.

The tempo was decent, and despite the temperature dropping from the oven of the Basque afternoon, Deila decided to make three changes at the break, Anthony Stokes, Efe Ambrose and Izaguirre coming in for Ciftci, Boyata and Mulgrew.

Eibar, on the other hand, took the luxury of changing their entire XI.

While they were busy sorting themselves out, though, Celtic took advantage, Ambrose stooping to head home a deadly Griffiths free kick.

And on the hour, the second came, sub keeper Andoni Errasti crazily clawing down Griffiths on the edge of the box, before the striker stepped up to smack it home off the inside of the post.

Deila instantly changed out another four, their jobs done, with Saidy Janko, Tom Rogic, Kieran Tierney and Jamie Lindsay coming on.

Replacing three quarters of their defence had left them looking a little vulnerable - although they were desperately unlucky to lose a goal to yet another questionable handball decision, this time Izaguirre taking one flush from a yard away.

Bailly was done this time, Mikel Arruabarrena going down the middle to put the home side on the scoresheet.

But the game wasn’t done and neither was Griffiths, finishing things off with a nice step inside and a 25 yard strike off the inside of the other postm, before capitalising on another howler from the keeper to slot home his third at the death.