You have been out recovering from your knee injury for a long time. How are feeling now? 

I feel good. I'm training hard and now I am ready to play and help the team. I'm waiting for my chance. 

Christian Noboa, who has recovered from a similar injury, said at first he was scared of re-injurying his knee. Do you have a similar worry? 

No. I don’t want to get hurt again of course and the injury was a severe one and painful. But I try not to think about such things and I try not to let it make me afraid.

While you were out, Ivanovic and Rakitsky have played well at the centre of defence. Does that worry you while you are sitting on the bench? 

Every player always wants to be in the starting lineup. But football is that way and anything can happen. We have good defenders and I am trying to remain calm, I am training a lot and waiting for my opportunity to prove myself and I won't miss it. 

The Russian season is in the home stretch and each match increases in value Do you feel any psychological pressure?

There really are a lot of emotions around us. I will not hide from this and it is quite a nervous period. However, now is the part of the season when we have to play at our best and fully concentrate, we must play confidently and not drop points.

Your Instagram account has lots of photos of your wife and son. Is family the most important thing in your life? 

Of course. Wherever I am, my family is everything to me. This is what fills me with energy and gives me strength. 

In August it will be two years that you've been in St. Petersburg. Are there any peculiarities of Russian life that still surprise you?

I don’t know everything about Argentina, even though I lived there for so many years. So it's difficult to say about Russia, every day I discover something new here in Russia. I enjoy living in St. Petersburg more and more. It is nice for me and also for my family. We have no complaints. 

Tell us about your son, we know he's still little, but is he showing any interest in football? Does he go to the stadium? 

Yes, he comes to every Zenit home match. He likes to sing, dance and watch the fans. As for football, I buy him a lot of footballs and I'm happy when he plays with them. 

In Autumn you told us that your son speaks Spanish and English, but not Russian. Is there any progress in this? 

No, he doesn't speak Russian yet. But his English is getting better and better and even more than Spanish. He goes to a playgroup where they speak English.

Last year we asked you how you spend your free time with your family, you said that you were going to parks, visiting the countryside, especially Peterhof. Since then have you visited many more places?

Because of the cold weather, we haven't really visited anywhere lately, so we often go to the city's main shopping centres, Galerie, Europolis and others, we go shopping so we don't have to be out on the street.

Do you have Argentinian evenings with the other Zenit players? Either at your home or at someone else's? 

We have them everywhere. It can be at my home, at Rigoni's or at Driussi's. Sometimes we meet in a restaurant to have dinner, drink mate and talk about things. 

You love dogs. Where did you get this love? 

I've liked dogs all my life. When I'm done with football, I'll have a lot of them, ten or fifteen. While I am an active player I'm always on planes and traveling, combining it with animals is hard. So now I have only one dog, a chihuahua. 

To have ten or fifteen dogs, you will probably need lots of land, a big house? 

I don’t know, I haven’t thought about the details yet. ok maybe not fifteen, but ten. But it is really important to me.

Soon the Russian season is over as will the Champions League. Are you supporting Barcelona because of Messi?

I always watch the Champions League closely as there are the best players in the world. The Champions League is very interesting at the moment, Ajax Amsterdam look very attractive, a young, exciting team, who are interesting to watch. I think it will be a Barcelona v Ajax final. 

It looks like we'll be hearing the Champions League music once again at the Gazprom Arena next season. Will Zenit be able to compete with the likes of Ajax next season? 

We all dream of Zenit playing in the Champions League. I already had the experience of playing in it and it creates unforgettable memories. If we do get in group stages, it will be a plus for each player and it will be great for us to compete with such teams.