Former Uruguay international Gus Poyet has defended Luis Suarez for the goal-line handball which helped the South Americans advance to the World Cup semi-finals, saying the forward "took one for the team".

Suarez's handball prevented Ghana's Dominic Adiyiah from scoring in the last minute of extra time in the quarter-final in Johannesburg. He was sent off but Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty, with Uruguay triumphing in the shoot-out that followed.

Poyet believes Suarez should not be labelled a cheat and reckons he simply did what he had to do.

The ex-Chelsea and Tottenham midfielder told BBC Radio Five Live: "I was little bit disappointed with some people talking about cheating. I think that is absolute rubbish.

"That is taking one for the team. That is making something happen for the rest of their life. That is helping one country of 3.5million people to get to the semi-final for the first time in so many years."

He continued: "You are telling me the player had to let the ball go in? Is that football? I think you're missing something really important here.

"I think you call it cheating when you try to score a goal with the hand, to take advantage when the referee cannot see that.

"Everybody saw that. The referee saw that. He gave the red card to the player (Suarez).

"The player (Gyan) had the chance to score the penalty and didn't.

"We are missing something really important. When you are naive, you don't win football games.

"Suarez put himself in front of the whole country and because of that Uruguay is in the semi-finals."