Australia international goalkeeper Mathew Ryan is quickly coming to terms with life as a Valencia player, and hoping Champions League play-off progress past Monaco on Tuesday night will bring many more spine-tingling big nights with his new club.
Ryan, 23, joined Valencia for €7 million from Club Brugge this summer -- having just two years ago left A-League side Central Coast Mariners in a low profile €150,000 move.
He impressed enough in Belgium to both seasons be named the Jupiler League's best goalkeeper, and won the Golden Glove award as Australia lifted the 2015 AFC Asian Cup on home soil in January.
He also featured in all three games at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, after taking over from Mark Schwarzer as the Socceroos' first choice custodian.
But the reception he and his teammates received as the home team bus arrived at the Mestalla ahead of last Wednesday's Champions League play-off game at home to Monaco brought home just what life as a Valencia player was going to be all about.
The @valenciacf players received some reception! #UCL pic.twitter.com/qbEN8OSP1S
- Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 19, 2015
"It's definitely been a step up," Sydney-born Ryan told ESPN FC.
"It's a massive club, you saw that with the Champions League game against Monaco. There must have been 5,000 people out at the front when we rocked up on the bus. Obviously the stadium itself is something special.
"There is a 'wow' factor to everything at the club. I expected it to be big, but just didn't know the extent it would be. I'm just enjoying being at the pinnacle of the game, at one of the top teams in a league that is arguably the best in the world."
Ryan repaid this reception with an excellent display in his first competitive game in a Valencia shirt, with the highlight being a reflex finger-tip save to deny Monaco winger Bernardo Silva. He helped his side to a 3-1 first leg win, making them big favourites to make it into Thursday's Champions League proper draw.
"Like any new player you want to justify yourself within the team," Ryan said.
"It was nice to make that save in the first half, and ease the pressure and expectation of everyone. It's in the past now and I'm just trying to search for some consistency now and just show everyone that I'm the right man for the job."
Next up was a domestic Spanish bow on Saturday night at Rayo Vallecano, where Ryan became only the third Australian to play a La Liga match, following current Young Socceroos' coach Aurelio Vidmar and ex-Alaves and Osasuna striker John Aloisi.
That game at the Estadio Vallecas saw his first clean sheet for his new club. It was especially impressive as he was playing behind an inexperienced back four which missed last season's defensive leader Nicolas Otamendi after the Argentine's big money transfer to Manchester City last week.
Ryan, who according to reports might himself have moved to the Premier League during the summer, admitted he was still be coming to terms with the new country, culture and language.
"It's been one month now since I've been in Valencia," he said. "In the beginning it's a little bit tough to adjust to your new surroundings.
"It's a little bit different now -- in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, where I was, there were a lot of English speakers. Not so much here in Valencia, but fast forward six months or so and hopefully I'll be speaking another language."
Until then, other English speakers around Valencia's Paterna training facility, including defenders Lucas Orban and Shkodran Mustafi, and midfielder Andre Gomes, are on translation duties.
"Lucas, Mustafi, Andre Gomes... there're a few of them who speak a little bit," Ryan said. "Actually they speak more than what I expected. I try to communicate with the little Spanish I know. That's the only way I'm going to learn more -- trying to speak it."
Valencia coach Nuno Esprito Santo, a former goalkeeper himself, also has an impressive grasp of languages to help get his message across, Ryan revealed. "[Nuno] speaks very good English, he speaks a number of languages I think," he said.
"I've heard he speaks French and Russian also. And he obviously speaks Portuguese and Spanish. During every team meeting and each time we are together as a group, I add more words to my Spanish vocabulary. If he has something personal to tell me, then he tells me in English. So it's all good."
The arrival of former England, Manchester United and Everton full-back Phil Neville at Valencia in the summer was another boost, Ryan said, adding he had not particularly enjoyed their conversations about the recent Ashes cricket series.
"It's good to have someone else with English as their first language," he said. "And he's been good, he's good mates with Timmy Cahill, who is Australian too obviously. So we've been getting on well.
"He's been letting me know about the cricket, and that's all done and dusted now, what can I say? Bragging rights to him this time around."
A goalkeeper moving to La Liga must be aware that they will soon be facing up to the world's most fearsome attacking players, with Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez set to visit Mestalla in early December, and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in town a few weeks' later.
Ryan smiled when asked what his plans were for dealing with such challenges later in the season. He explained that, for now, he was just making sure he took each day as it comes.
"I'm not really looking forward to anything more than the next game," he said. "You've enough trouble with everyone in this league, there are no easy games. So I just take each day as it comes.
"During the week we've a busy schedule, so I just make sure I'm doing all the right things, sleep well, eat well and make sure the body and mind is as best it can be for all the games. Hopefully I can just keep getting selected out there, and playing, and doing my part for the team to help them win games."
For a man who a little more than two years ago was playing his football at the humble Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford, north of Sydney, it has been a meteoric rise to stardom.