Uruguay's Luis Suarez has escaped an extended ban for his handball against Ghana, but will miss Tuesday's semi-final with the Netherlands.

Suarez was shown a straight red card for the illegal goal-line clearance which kept out Dominic Adiyah's header in Friday's quarter-final.

Substitute Adiyah's last-minute header would have proved to be the winner.

Fifa had been considering increasing Suarez's ban to two-games, potentially ruling him out of the World Cup final.

The governing body's disciplinary code gives the committee the option of a longer ban for "unsportsmanlike conduct", but Suarez insisted afterwards he had little option but to use his hand.

And Fifa's disciplinary commission ruled on Saturday the ban should be just for one game.

Following his sending off Ajax striker Suarez said "the 'Hand Of God' now belongs to me" after his goal-line handball helped his country reach the World Cup semi-finals.

Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty and Uruguay went on to win a shoot-out.

And referencing Diego Maradona's goal against England in 1986, Suarez said: "Mine is the real 'Hand Of God'. I made the save of the tournament."

While Maradona punched home a goal as Argentina beat England 2-1 in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals, saying it had been scored "a little with the hand of God", Suarez reacted to push out a certain goal and then watched as Ghana missed the resultant penalty with the last kick of the extra time.

PAUL FLETCHER'S BLOG Does anybody really think that professional players all over the world would not have done the same thing?

"Sometimes in training I play goalkeeper so it was worth it," the 23-year-old said.

"There was no alternative but for me to do that and when they missed the penalty I thought 'It is a miracle and we are alive in the tournament'," added the striker.

"Now we are in the semi-finals although I was very sad because no-one likes to be sent off.

"The celebration afterwards was impressive, but very quiet because nobody gave us a chance but, with courage, we move forward."

After his team reached a first World Cup semi-final since 1970, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez also insisted that Suarez's actions could not be considered cheating.

"Saying we cheated Ghana is too harsh a word to use. Yes he stuck his hand out but it's not cheating. It was instinctive," he said.

"When there is a handball in the penalty area there is a red card and the player is thrown out of the game.

"The player instinctively reacted and was thrown out of the match and he can't play the next match. What else do you want?

"Is Suarez also to blame for Ghana missing the penalty? We try to be dignified and if we lose a match we look for the reasons for it. You shouldn't look to third parties.

In the same situation, there is no chance the Ghana players would have used our hand John Pantsil

"This is football. There are consequences to that handball and he didn't know that Ghana was going to miss that penalty.

"I'm emotional. We didn't play well, but we've gone through,. It seems there's something forcing us on, it must be the strength and unity of these boys. We are very excited."

Gyan stepped up to score Ghana's opening spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out, but his side's eventual defeat saw the striker broke down in tears.

Sebastian Abreu scored the winning penalty after misses by Ghanaian pair John Mensah and Dominic Adiyah, either side of a miss by Uruguayan defender Maxi Pereira.

And Ghana defender John Pantsil was adamant that his team would not have resorted to the same tactics as Suarez.

"The goal should have stood rather than the player being sent off. Yes, that is the case," said the Fulham defender.

"In the same situation, there is no chance the Ghana players would have used our hand. In any case, we would have made sure we would clear the ball with our head."

However Diego Forlan, who scored Uruguay's equaliser with a stunning free-kick to cancel out Sulley Muntari's opener, hailed Suarez as his team's saviour.

"Suarez this time, instead of scoring goals, he saved one, I think he saved the game," he said.

"We suffered but now we will be amongst the four best sides in the world. There are no words for that.

"As for the shoot-out, we felt we were going to faint with each penalty."

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