Liverpool have done well to match Manchester United despite spending much less than their rivals, claims Rafael Benitez.

The Merseyside club has been obsessed with winning the league title for the first time in 19 years and Benitez felt that United's and Chelsea's spending power have made it almost impossible for the Anfield side.

"Manchester United make €65m a year more than we do and buy three £20m players a season," the Spaniard told the Guardian.

"Chelsea must have spent £500m in five years. We have built a team but economically we are way below them and yet we have still managed to compete. In the five years I have been here I have spent less than £40m on Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane. How are we supposed to compete with them?

Benitez also expressed his dismay at the huge expectations meted out by the Liverpool fans.

"We have never lost the ability to control games; what has been letting us down lately is our failure to kill games off. Our biggest problem is the huge expectations that people have. People talk about the league and that we have been 19 years without winning it – but then the Champions League turns up and we have to go all out for that as well," Benitez continued.

"Since I arrived we have won four titles, played in seven finals and reached a Champions League semi-final. We are where we should be. The problem is the anxiety and the desire to win everything and that is not easy."

As for the United manager, Benitez was once again unequivocal in his assessment. "Alex Ferguson controls everything in England. The facts are the facts. They are indisputable. When he started talking about Liverpool, I had to respond."

Benitez has previously been linked with a return to Real Madrid, where he managed the junior teams in the 1990s, but he said: "If I say that Madrid would be the icing on the cake for my career people will say I want to leave Liverpool. The right thing to say and the truth is that I am not thinking about leaving and I hope to be here for a long time but of course Real Madrid would be the perfect ending to anyone's career. But my career is not at an end yet."