Celtic pounce late to deny Dons cup win

Glasgow: Holders Celtic scraped a Scottish Cup quarterfinal replay with Aberdeen when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink stabbed in a dramatic close-range equaliser in stoppage time.

Aberdeen looked to have clinched a semifinal place against second division Queen of the South courtesy of a late goal from Jeffrey De Visscher. He slid home a 12-yard shot following a neat exchange of passes on the edge of the box with Lee Miller to prise open Celtic's defence in 79 minutes.

But Celtic's Dutch striker Vennegoor of Hesselink hurtled in to meet a low, diagonal cross from Georgios Samaras on the right to prod it under the keeper.

Superb block

Scott McDonald struck the right post on 23 minutes and then Aberdeen keeper Derek Soutar brilliantly beat out a header from Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Vennegoor of Hesselink came close to breaking the deadlock five minutes from the interval with a header that bounced off the bottom of the right post and flew across goal as McDonald narrowly failed to connect with the ball.

Soutar kept his side in the game with a series of fine saves, starting with a superb block on Vennegoor of Hesselink in 44 minutes and then another terrific point-blank save in 54 minutes from Shunsuke Nakamura.