Man on Fire! Alexis Sanchez scores as Chile hammer Venezuela, while Paraguay beat Peru

Sanchez is in top form for both club and country

As expected, Arsenal and Chile's front man, Alexis Sanchez besieged Venezuela's defence and opened the scoring as Chile romped to a 5-0 home victory on Friday, while Paraguay defeated Peru 2-1 in Asuncion.

Sanchez, who is in great form for Arsenal and has found the net eight times in the Premier League, broke the deadlock with a header in the 17th minute.

The Arsenal forward almost doubled his tally when he came close to scoring a spectacular goal from a corner later in the first half.

Chile dominated the friendly in the southern city of Talcahuano and went 2-0 up in first-half stoppage time with a low shot from Jorge Valdivia, who was returning to 'La Roja' after reconsidering his decision to quit the team after the World Cup.

Valdivia's influence grew in the second half as Chile overwhelmed Venezuela.

'I'm back and I'm happy,' Valdivia said. 'I trained hard to be back and I hope this is the first step of a good history with Chile

QPR forward Eduardo Vargas added another in the second half with Rodrigo Millar scoring in the 77th minute to make it 4-0.

Substitute Pablo Hernandez capped the scoring with Chile's fifth in stoppage time.

In Asuncion, Paraguay beat 2-1 Peru as their rebuilding stage continues after missing out on the World Cup in Brazil.

Vargas also showed his form and quality by adding his tally to the goals for Chile

Angel Romero's 70th minute opener was cancelled out four minutes later by Peru's Paolo Guerrero.

But Paraguay sealed the victory two minutes into stoppage time when Derlis Gonzalez scored a penalty after Yoshimar Yotun handled the ball and was sent off.