Dundee United and Celtic will replay their Scottish Cup quarter-final after a madcap afternoon at Tannadice that saw three red cards, two penalties - and a 1-1 scoreline when the dust had settled.
Virgil van Dijk and Paul Paton saw red inside the first 20 minutes, while Paul Dixon also walked early in the second period but United's nine men were to hold out for a replay.
A rutted surface made any attempts at a passing game a lottery and led to a fractured contest that was desperately short of conhesive football from either side for much of the contest.
The first flashpoint occured when Scott Brown tangled with Calum Butcher and Van Dijk also got involved. After a long consultation with his assistant, referee Craig Thomson flashed a red card to Van Dijk and, more baffingly, to United's Paton, who did not appear to be involved in the incident.
Nadir Ciftci wasted a free-kick from a promising position in a rare goal threat before Stefan Johansen almost caught man-of-the-match Radoslaw Cierzniak napping from 25 yards.
Then in a frantic two-minute spell, Ryan Dow's close-range flick came back off the inside of the post only for Celtic to break and Johansen set up Anthony Stokes, who saw his bobbling shot come back off the post.
Moments later, Aidan Connolly went down under the challenge of Stokes and Ciftci (45) found the bottom corner from the penalty spot.
United's Paul Dixon was ordered off after blocking a Leigh Griffiths shot with his arm but Cierzniak flung himself to his left to brilliantly keep out the resulting spot-kick.
Thereafter the nine-men dug in as Celtic mounted a series of attacks, the indefatigble Cierzniak denying Stokes and substitute John Guidetti.
But the equaliser arrived when Johansen's floated cross picked out Griffiths (71) who planted his header across Cierzniak into the far corner.
Nir Bitton fired wide and Guidetti spooned one over the top from eight yards as the pressure continued and it was fitting that Cierzniak denied Guidetti one last time as the nine-men deservedly held out after five minutes of added time for the re-match.
The two sides will now meet three more times in the next 14 days - the League Cup final next Sunday - for which the three men ordered off today will be banned, barring appeals - a Cup replay on March 15 and then a league game at Celtic Park on March 21.
