Roque Santa Cruz admits life couldn't be sweeter at Blackburn Rovers after he has surpassed even his own expectations during his first six months in England.

On his arrival from Bayern Munich last summer in a bargain £3.8 million move, the Paraguayan hitman set out to reach 15 goals in all competitions in his first full season with Rovers.

But having grabbed his 15th goal of a highly productive campaign against Aston Villa on Saturday, the 26-year-old sensation is now plotting to reach the magic 20-goal mark and fire Blackburn into Europe again.

"When I first signed, I set myself a 15-goal target so I'm very pleased to have reached that with a few games still to go," said Santa Cruz.

"I'm looking forward now to scoring as many as I can between now and the end of the season.

"I'd like to get 20 and I think that is possible because the team is improving all the time, and they will always give the strikers the opportunity to score goals."

While Santa Cruz's heroics have made him an instant favourite among Rovers supporters, his feats have also gone well noticed by a clutch of rival Premiership clubs.

The former Bayern star has been linked with moves to Manchester City and Tottenham in the January transfer window, but the Paraguayan insists he is settled at Blackburn.

Santa Cruz said: "I'm very happy here and I'm just focused on playing well for the team and helping the team to become better also.

"I'm not really interested in talking about what's going on with other situations because I'm very happy here and enjoying every minute of my time at Blackburn.

"It's very hard to know why I settled in so quickly.

"But I was very impressed with the quality of the team, and the kind of people that they are, so I think that made it much easier for me to settle in quickly.

"My family is also very happy here and that helps because it allows me to concentrate on playing football."

Santa Cruz's strike at Villa Park earned Rovers a point which could, ultimately, prove crucial as Mark Hughes' men bid to claim a European spot for next season.

Currently occupying eighth place in the Premiership with 14 games remaining, Rovers are in a good position to qualify, at least, for the UEFA Cup and possibly the Champions League.

And Santa Cruz admits there is a burning desire to reach Europe again after the club bowed out of the UEFA Cup before the group stages this term.

"That's what we expect to achieve and I think we showed enough (on Saturday) to know that we have the qualities to reach that target," he said.

"We will keep working hard and try to finish as high as we can.

"We want to get back European again because this season, we didn't play as well (in the UEFA Cup) as we know we can, and that was a big disappointment.

"So we want to qualify again and show that we can do better in Europe."