Rijkaard is now in charge of the Middle East country and, having worked under the Dutchman at Galatasaray, Neill knows he will have his players in the perfect frame of mind to face the Socceroos in Dammam.

Neill said: "He gets the players relaxed but also extremely confident in themselves, and he's shrewd.

"He knows how to play the game. He's played it at the top level; he's coached it at the top level. He would see that as a great challenge and a great opportunity to get one over on us."

Australia opened their Group D campaign with a less-than-impressive 2-1 win over Thailand on Friday - the hosts requiring a controversial late goal from Alex Brusque to claim all three points - while the Saudis were held to a goalless draw by Oman.

"Australia has the advantage at this stage in our group as they have defeated Thailand but the contest is still open for all the teams," said Rijkaard.

Thailand will look to get their first points on the board when they take on Oman in Bangkok.

Japan, like Australia, struggled in their opening qualifier, edging past North Korea 1-0 in Group C.

Alberto Zaccheroni's men head to Uzbekistan tomorrow for another tricky-looking encounter but the Italian is backing his players to prevail.

He said: "I expect our opponents in the upcoming matches to stick together and defend deep as North Korea did.

"But we are a highly motivated group and we must be prepared for any opponents - whether they defend deep or come out in open play.

"My team can create more chances than our opponents within 90 minutes, as we did against North Korea when we had more personalities and more options up front."

Japan will again be without CSKA Moscow playmaker Keisuke Honda and Inter Milan full-back Yuto Nagatomo for the trip to Tashkent.

"It is true that we don't have players matching the two of them (Honda and Nagatomo)," Zaccheroni added.

"But I am 100% satisfied with the players who have filled in for Honda and Nagatomo."

North Korea will aim to bounce back from the defeat to Japan when they host Tajikistan, who lost 1-0 at home to Uzbekistan in their opener.

With Iraq and Singapore losing their Group A openers on Friday - to Jordan and China respectively - the pressure is on to record a win when they meet tomorrow.

Iraq boss Zico admitted as such when he accepted the loser at the Jalan Besar Stadium would already be on the back foot in their bid to advance from the pool.

"We hope we can have a good match tomorrow, because both Iraq and Singapore lost their first matches," said the Brazilian.

"Tomorrow's [Tuesday] game is of big importance for us, we need to win otherwise it will be difficult to qualify."

Zico's Singapore counterpart Radojko Avramovic agreed, adding: "Both teams need points [if] both wish to be successful in this competition."

Jordan and China will look to build on their opening-day wins when they clash in Amman.

Group B favourites South Korea, who thrashed Lebanon 6-0 on Friday, visit Kuwait while Lebanon will hope to restore some pride at home to the United Arab Emirates.

Group E's action sees Indonesia meet Bahrain and Iran go to Qatar.

On Friday, Bahrain and Qatar drew 0-0 while Iran beat Indonesia 3-0.