Any attack on the South African soccer team during their stay in Bujumbura would be tantamount to suicide.
This is the verdict from experts on Burundi, where a clash on Sunday night between South African soldiers and a rebel faction, 30km north of the capital, has raised fears of retaliation.
"Churches, villagers, journalists and analysts will all be attacked in a civil war, but sport is the one untouchable in Africa," said Burundian analyst Herman Hanekom.
Three rebels died in the skirmish, the first in which South African troops were involved.
Civil war has raged almost non-stop in the tiny central African country, with several genocides accounting for the loss of more than a million lives.
But in the local populace there is a great sense of anticipation ahead of the game, in a country which has not had much to cheer about amid faltering ceasefires and peace deals.
Bafana team manager Stanley "Screamer" Tshabalala said the team was confident the African Nations Cup qualifier would be played without a hitch. "We have South African soldiers there and the embassy has already made the necessary arrangements," he said.
South African soldiers would also be on security detail for the match at the Prince Louis Rwagasore Stadium on Sunday, Tshabalala said.
The team will arrive in the lakeside capital on Friday and leave immediately after the game.
"The trouble to date is limited to outside the capital. We have a South African contingent in Bujumbura, and the Burundian defence force seems to be in control of the capital," Hanekom said.
About 700 South African soldiers have been deployed as protectors for exiled politicians in Burundi, after Nelson Mandela brokered a peace deal in 2001. Many of these soldiers now form part of an African force to police a ceasefire.
A month ago, the main rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy, had threatened to attack the South African soldiers for allegedly collaborating with Burundian government forces and entering rebel-held territory.