Zenit St. Petersburg new signing Axel Witsel has said he is impressed by the team’s supporters after debuting for the Russian champions.

Zenit suffered a shock 2-0 home defeat to a determined Terek side Friday, with the visitors leapfrogging Zenit to take first place in the Russian Premier League.

Witsel and another new signing Hulk made their debuts, but they had little impact on the match.

“It was my first time playing at Petrovsky for Zenit, and the fan support was really awesome,” Witsel said Friday in comments on the team website.

“The ambience in the stadium was excellent. It’s too bad that we couldn’t give the fans a victory today.”

“I liked the way one side of the stadium sings to the other side, and they go back and forth with their singing across the stadium.”

Witsel added it was not easy to play against a counter-attacking Terek side.

“They all got behind the ball, and they had all 11 players in their own half,” he said.

“We lacked space and then they got two goals on counterattacks.”

Witsel moved from Benfica to Zenit for €40 million last week.