Last night's 4-0 win over Qatar, along with Japan's 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan, saw Australia skip clear to top spot in their World Cup qualification group.

With the top two sides automatically qualifying for a finals berth in South Africa you could forgive Verbeek for feeling a little self-assured about his chances.

But with six matches to go, including consecutive away trips to Bahrain and Japan, the Dutchman wasn't quite ready to celebrate, answering swiftly when asked about how close the Socceroos were to qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

"Six games, three points a game, so 18 points," Verbeek quipped.

"I'm not the one who is running around with a bottle of champagne in my hand because we have six points. I will do that, maybe not with a bottle of champagne, but I will do that when we've qualified for the World Cup.

"Before we qualify we should not think that we are there, we still have a long way to go."

Verbeek may not have been willing to celebrate the result, but he was full of praise for his side's clinical disposal of Qatar, crediting Tim Cahill's ninth-minute opening goal as the key.

"I think we made it easy for ourselves, we did exactly what we had to do, score an early goal," Verbeek said.

"The goals I think were fantastic, the way we played, we controlled the game completely.

"I think we're very happy, two games, six points, five goals scored, zero goals against, not too bad."

Australian captain Lucas Neill was a little more confident of his side's chances of progressing, declaring Australia was favourite to finish first in its group.

"We have to say that, we won two from two, we're leading the group, we've got a lot of home games to come late on, we're strong home and away, we've got plus five-goal difference as well," Neill said.

"Which means everybody knows that we've made a statement now, but it's all for nothing if we don't win the next game, or at least get a point."

The Socceroos returned to their 2006 World Cup defensive line-up, with Craig Moore returning to the fold after rescinding his international retirement.

While Neill admitted he felt for the incumbent Chris Coyne, who was relegated to the bench due to Moore's inclusion, he was full of praise for his old partner at the back.

"You know what you're going to get with Craig and we have an understanding … it's just great to have him back and putting on another top performance," Neill said.