Chile began their Copa America defence in emphatic manner with a 4-0 trashing of tournament guests, Japan, on Monday. Even Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez scored for the first time in five months.

The South Americans took the lead late in the first half with a towering header from midfielder, Erick Pulgar.

In the 54th minute, striker Eduardo Vargas then impressed the audience with his remarkable consistency for Chile by scoring at a fourth consecutive major tournament and doubling his country’s lead, via a deflection.

Alexis Sanchez made it 3-0 with a diving header from close range in the 82nd minute. The Chile’s all-time top scorer punched the air in delight after going through a frustrating season with Manchester United, made worse by a knee injury he suffered in March.

A minute later, Sanchez laid a pass for Vargas, who wasted no time to score again. Vargas replaced Marcelo Salas as Chile’s second all-time leading scorer behind Sanchez.

In a post-match conference, Sanchez said that he had been through one of the worst periods of his footballing career recently.

For six weeks I felt worse than I ever have before,” he told reporters. “I struggled in the first half as I felt stifled but in the second half I was more relaxed and played with more freedom and excitement.

The win placed Chile joint top of Group C with Uruguay, who had earlier beaten Ecuador 4-0 on Sunday.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.