Zanetti made his 600th appearance for Inter in the 1-0 win over Lecce in the Serie A last night.
“We knew it would be a hard game tonight,” said Mancini.
“Lecce defended with eight, nine players and marked tightly our strikers. We never gave up and we were rewarded by Julio Cruz’s goal.
“We’ll have a lot of hard matches this year, this is the Italian championship. The main thing was to get the three points, and a such a hard-fought victory gives us morale to face a Milan side that is improving markedly.
“Compliments to Zanetti on his 600 matches for Inter. He’s an example as a captain and a player.”
