Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao scores twice in 4 minutes for Colombia against Bahrain

Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao has shown there is still life in him yet after scoring twice in four minutes for Colombia in a 6-0 thrashing of Bahrain.

Against relatively feeble opposition, the 29-year-old struck two first-half goals and provided an assist for Carlos Bacca's opener. The striker also saw two efforts chalked off for offside.

Falcao, on a season-long from Monaco, has started just one game for United since February and scored just twice this year, fuelling suggestions the club will not exercise their option to sign him outright at the end of the season.

But the former Porto and Atletico Madrid star rediscovered his lethal touch in his country's colours to regain some much-needed confidence with just eight games of the season remaining.

The striker unselfishly teed up Sevilla striker Bacca for his side's opener, before slotting the ball home himself following a pass from Juan Quintero, only to see the offside flag raised. He soon made up for that with a wonderfully taken left-footed strike, sweeping home a lofted through ball into the bottom right corner.

Minutes later, the much-criticised striker had his second, taking advantage of some frail Bahrain defending to lift the ball over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. That goal also put him within two of equalling Arnoldo Iguarán's all-time record haul for Colombia.

In the second half, Falcao saw another effort chalked off before Borussia Dortmund striker Adrian Ramos added his side's fourth. With his work done, the United striker was substituted with 20 minutes remaining, with Rayo Vallecano's John Mojica and Wason Renteria of Racing Club adding a fifth and sixth to seal the rout.

Earlier in March, Colombia's national team manager Jose Pekerman vowed to help the forlorn striker through what he described as a "difficult moment" in his career.

"It is a huge problem that we need to resolve, this problem is as large as the sadness that Falcao is going through now," Pékerman said. "I feel I need to support him because I understand how hard it is for him and the difficult moment he is experiencing. I want to work with him again and help restore his confidence.

"I know Falcao's strengths, his mentality and his fighting spirit and I have never doubted that he will come out the other side. He's in a bad moment, but he's looking after himself and this week is going to be very important for him."