Neil Lennon has hailed striker Giorgos Samaras as "world class" after his hat-trick helped Celtic to a 5-2 win over Kilmarnock today.

The Greek international scored twice in the first half before helping to make the points safe late on in their Scottish Premiership clash

"I thought he was world class today," Lennon told reporters. "You can talk about the standard of Scottish Premiership football but when you see a player play as well as that, you can tell that he is a top-class player.

"I thought he was brilliant. Everything about his game was of the highest quality. I am delighted he got the goals but even if he hadn't, I thought his all-round play was magnificent."

Celtic will be hoping that Samaras can reproduce that form when they face Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday.