Jeffrey de Visscher's 79th-minute goal had Aberdeen heading for a semi-final clash against Queen of the South.

But his fellow Dutchman slid home a Georgios Samaras cross with seconds remaining.

Soutar told Sky Sports: "I'm just devastated, the whole changing room is down. But we're still in the cup.

"Like the fans were singing, that's why they are champions, because they never give up.

"We were confident going into the game. It showed in the first half, we had so many chances and the second half we started well and took the game to Celtic.

"But they are a strong physical team and they had their chances as well.

"We got lucky a few times when they hit the post - but that's the Scottish Cup."

Vennegoor of Hesselink felt his side had deserved to force a replay.

"If you look at the whole game we had a lot of chances," the striker said.

"The big man had some great saves and three or four times we hit the post.

"When they scored a goal it became very tight but we got a draw.

"We were lucky in the end and now we play at home. It's a nice place to play for us so I hope we can finish Aberdeen off.

"But you never know what happens, it's the cup."

Soutar agreed that the tie was far from over despite Celtic's formidable home record.

"It's definitely not gone," he added. "We showed today, we went to Ibrox last week and had a few chances. We have got to go there full of confidence."

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Both managers agreed that the game had been worthy of a Scottish Cup quarter-final.

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan said: "It feels good but I must say it was a terrific game of football. It could have been 5-5.

"We had good goalkeeping, things hitting the bar, tackles, it had everything."

Jimmy Calderwood added: "It was a wonderful cup tie. Football can be very cruel but it could have been 5-5 also."